Ghosn Takes Infiniti to Task

NEW YORK – While Infiniti’s leadership has been more low-key about its ambitions in the last year or two, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn says there still is a desire within his company to take the luxury marque to the top tier of its sector.

“We can do a much better job with Infiniti,” he tells media at the 2016 New York International Auto Show.

Ghosn says Nissan looks at all opportunities for growth and classifies a bigger, better Infiniti as “a major one. We have the technology and we have the know-how.”

Sales of luxury vehicles generate more revenue for automakers than sales of mass-market models, an opportunity Infiniti wanted to exploit when it brought Johan de Nysschen on board as president in 2012 and shifted its headquarters from Yokohama, Japan, to Hong Kong.

But since his 2014 departure and replacement with Roland Krueger, Infiniti has been less open about its future plans.

Ghosn won’t address whether Infiniti’s previously stated goal of achieving 500,000 global sales by 2020 still is in the cards, and Krueger, also at the event here, says he would rather focus on the 215,000 sales Infiniti tallied last year.

However, most of those sales, as has been the case for Infiniti’s 27-year existence, were made in the U.S., where the brand began in 1989.

Smaller models, such as the soon-to-be-released C-segment QX30 CUV, should help Infiniti grow its customer base, Krueger notes.

C-segment CUVs also have proved to be just as popular in developing markets as in mature ones, which could help the brand increase its global sales.

Ford’s Mark Fields, speaking at a Lincoln press conference, says China and the U.S. are projected to account for nearly 50% of total luxury sales by 2020.

Ghosn alludes to more models coming for Infiniti, but it’s unclear if they can match the flow of models from German manufacturers, who are releasing a slew of niche cars and CUVs after already establishing themselves in the major market segments of compact and midsize sedans and CUVs.

For cost-sharing reasons, Nissan has a partnership with Daimler for platform and engines across Infiniti and Mercedes model lineups. The refreshed Infiniti Q50 sedan is just arriving on the market with a Daimler 2.0L turbo 4-cyl. Nissan is assembling in Decherd, TN.

In his speech to open the show, Ghosn says there was a lot of friction among Nissan engineers, who initially were not enthusiastic about using another automaker’s technology rather than developing their own in-house.

Meanwhile, Ghosn says he isn’t sure whether Nissan has had any contact with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles regarding the sharing of platforms for C- and D-segment mass-market cars.

FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne wants to partner with another OEM on next-generation versions of his company’s compact and midsize sedans, as FCA’s homegrown Dodge Dart and Chrysler 200 haven’t sold well.

“I cannot say I’m aware of all requests (and) studies made,” Ghosn says.

Ghosn says while Nissan always is open to partnerships, he prefers long-term relationships, not pacts “about one car, one product.”

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