- Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa said, ‘There’s a lot going wrong’ with Infiniti.
- The automaker learned that Infiniti didn’t need a special architecture to be successful.
- The executive said the brand needs at least 5 models before it can start expanding.
Infiniti is in the rebuilding phase. The luxury brand has struggled in recent years, trimming its portfolio to just two models, with a third on the way. Sales continue to decline, and in a recent interview, Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa explained how it all went wrong.
“There were a lot of mistakes,” he said. One of them was the decision to develop a special architecture for Infiniti. Nissan’s other ambitious goal is to reach 8 million sales per year, a target the automaker has never been able to achieve.
“We took a wild gamble,” he added, “and then the volume just wasn’t there.” This makes it difficult for automakers to invest in the brand “because the company is not in good shape.”
According to executives, Infiniti does not need a special platform. Instead, he said, the brand needs to “differentiate cars intelligently.” This will be done “with the right level of technology, the right visual differentiation and an overall better driving experience.”
What’s Next For Infiniti?
Espinoza said Infiniti needs at least five models to start growing again. When Nissan laid out its roadmap earlier this week, it announced that Infiniti would add four new models to its portfolio, bringing the total to seven.
Three of the new products will be SUVs—a mid-size SUV and two ladder-frame SUVs—and all three will be hybrids. The fourth is a performance sedan based on the Nissan Skyline. The car will feature a twin-turbocharged V6 engine with a manual transmission driving the rear wheels.
These new models will lean heavily on Nissan’s lineup and will likely share more than just powertrains. Last May, when the company announced its Re:Nissan plans, the automaker said it aimed to reduce the number of platforms by almost half to just 7 by 2035.
Jeff Perez contributed to this report.
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Source: Infiniti
Motorcycle Pickup1: Infiniti has been neglected for too long, but this much-needed attention will result in an interesting lineup despite the models’ similarities to their Nissan counterparts. There seems to be a plan for the brand that will keep it alive and distinct—we’ll just have to see if it works.
