Infiniti (Nissan's Premium brand) sees its future exposed
- Infiniti, Nissan's Premium brand which was created in 1989 to compete with Lexus, Toyota's Premium brand, has experienced growing disaffection since 2017. Its global sales (mainly in the United States, Russia and the Middle East) have gradually declined from 250,000 units in 2017 to 60,000 in 2022.
- In reality, Nissan's goal of selling 500,000 Infiniti per year starting in 2017 was never achieved, but only 50% of that goal in 2017 (peak of the brand's sales) was made before a collapse after this date. The gap between Infiniti and Lexus sales has continued to grow over the past twenty years. Lexus sold 625,000 cars in 2022. Infiniti is even behind Acura, Honda's Premium brand, which sold 102,000 cars in 2022 and behind Genesis, Hyundai's Premium brand, which sold 220,000 cars in 2022.
- And let's not even talk about the German premium brands BMW, Mercedes and Audi which sell 3 to 4 times more than Lexus. The sales volume of the Infiniti brand has become so low that its very existence is threatened.
- The reasons for this failure are multiple. First, the Infiniti brand failed to stand out from the competition, as Lexus gradually did with its hybrid engines (HEV) and then its creative design. The charismatic FX model which initiated the fashion for SUV coupes had no successor. Infiniti's first market, the United States, quickly turned away from the brand due to a boring car styling. Then, the arrival of Infiniti in Europe very quickly ended in failure. Finally, the withdrawal of Infiniti from Russia in 2022 where the brand had a fairly large customer base was the final blow.