Infiniti Pivots to Electrification — and a Brand Reinvention

Jeff Pope group vice president of Infiniti Americas who spoke at the company39s press event in Arizona on October 30 celebrated 30 years of the brand by pointing out that from the beginning quotit was not just the car but the total ownership experiencequotThe Q45 luxury sedan debuted in 1989 Pope said with an ad that quoteveryone remembersquot because it featured rain on a pond and no car The sedan39s core package included roadside assistance nocharge loaner cars for shop visits trip interruption benefits a fouryear 60000mile limited warranty and moreGerman automakers laughed at the idea of Japanese luxury cars 30 years ago when Infiniti Acura and Lexus launched While they39re not laughing 30 years later overall the luxury market is hurtingInfiniti39s vision was radical at the time but now everybody does something similar and luxury dealerships are going out of their way to enhance the ownership experience with inhouse cafes massage stations and even movie theatersquotLuxuryquot Infiniti39s 2019 ad for the QX50 pushes the line quotLuxury should be lived inquot and associates the car with a glamorous lifestyle of clubs beaches and romantic eveningsThe company has decent cars but most of its current models have been around a little too long Infiniti39s fairly broadbased lineup for 2020 includes the requisite three SUVs in crossover QX50 sevenpassenger premium crossover QX60 and fullsized luxury QX80 plus the Q50 sports sedan and Q60 sports coupe Like most manufacturers it has put sedans on the back burner as the public mania for sport utility continues unabatedThe turmoil at parent company Nissan doesn39t help The brand was on a roll for most of the 2010s but in 2018 US results were down 27 percent from 2017 In September of this year sales in the US were down a hurting 44 percent compared to the same month in 2018 For the first nine months of 2019 the brand dropped 165 percent The slump has been industrywide but Infiniti39s performance can be tied to a lack of new product something Infiniti is now poised to address with five new models over the next three yearsThe US remains the company39s top market followed by China Until recently the division was based in Hong Kong amp8212 keeping it close to its fastestgrowing market amp8212 but now it39s moving back to Japan The synergies of being close to the mothership amp8212 in the meetings instead of a video conference line amp8212 have become obvious they saidInfiniti39s future is tied to the coming age of electrification quotWe are well on our way to electrification with five new cars in three yearsquot Colleran said quotIt39s a great chance for a rebirth of the brandquotThe electric cars will be based on Infiniti39s Q QS and QX quotInspirationquot concept cars Two of them a batteryelectric which the company didn39t say all that much about but will have 300mile range and a hybrid system developed by Nissan that uses a relatively small battery pack of up to 51 kilowatthours that39s kept charged with a frontmounted 15liter VCTurbo generator that never drives the wheels amp8212 electric motors on each of the two axles do that Nissan says its quotePOWERquot system quotallows you to enjoy all the benefits of an EV without having to worry about charging the batteryquotThe gas generator will be kept isolated and extremely quiet so customers need hardly know it39s there said Eric Rigaux general manager product strategy and planning for Infiniti Motor Company quotOur new gasgenerated EV powertrain represents the next step into our electrified futurequot he said quotacting as a bridge to full electrification and setting the tone for our upcoming zero and ultralow emission carsquotWe didn39t see either of the electric cars at the press event but there will be two sedans with Nissan39s ePOWER gas generator system and an allelectric crossover Also one of the five new vehicles is the QX55 a sleek coupestyled crossover built on the QX50 We did get a look at that one but had our cameras and phones confiscated before the viewing Both front and rear styling are severely raked and there39s a big tapering chromed grille upfront The teaser photo here is however all we can show Infiniti swore that the styling does not compromise rear headroomThe QX55 will be joined later by a redesigned QX60 quotThe market is hugequot Rigaux said After all these cars presumably outside the threeyear window will be a new flagship QX80Infiniti clearly needs these new cars to revive its brand A pivot to electrification combined with fresh new styling and continued emphasis on the customer experience could indeed be the tonic the 30yearold nameplate needs And that plan should be joined to an ad and marketing campaign as innovative as the one that introduced the brand three decades agoClick the social buttons to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Infiniti Pivots to Electrification — and a Brand Reinvention

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Jim Motavalli

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Infiniti Pivots to Electrification — and a Brand Reinvention

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