New Infiniti chairman plots strategy to improve vehicles, experience

TOKYO — Global Infiniti Chairman Peyman Kargar, just six months into leading the Japanese premium brand, is rolling out a four-pronged attack to accelerate growth.

The strategy hinges on new models, new technology, better customer experience and powerful driving dynamics.

Kargar is working on a new midterm plan to make it all crystalize. That road map should be finalized around April or May, but Kargar offered a sneak peek in an interview with Automotive News this month on the sidelines of the QX55 crossover unveiling.

"We want to be the modern Japanese luxury brand. To do that, we have four areas to reinforce strongly in this midterm plan," Kargar said. "We are very busy now accelerating the plan."

The new strategy will plot a course through 2024, coinciding with the revised midterm plan released in May by parent company Nissan Motor Co., called Nissan Next.

Turning around Infiniti is a key element of the Nissan Next program, said Kargar, who took office June 1. Going forward, executives want more commonization between Infiniti and its Nissan mass-market sibling brand in a push to dig the parent company out of two years of red ink.

Infiniti's product rush begins with this year's launch of the QX55 coupe-styled crossover and builds with the redesign of the larger QX60 crossover next year. But looking further ahead, Infiniti will renew every vehicle in the lineup by 2024, Kargar said.

"I'm really talking about a new era," he said. "Because from now, we are coming with a regular refreshment of our lineup."

By 2024, Infiniti also will introduce a new hybrid drivetrain that will underpin the brand's technology push. The system, which will also be offered stateside, will be a new, high- power version of Nissan's e-Power setup and help differentiate Infiniti from other premium brands.

Infiniti also is on track to upgrade its customer experience, Kargar said.

For starters, that will entail expanding Infiniti's pickup and delivery service, allowing dealerships to deliver new vehicles to customers' homes and retrieve cars for repair and maintenance.

Infiniti also will further enhance its online buying process, Kargar said.

"We don't want to replace physical purchasing, but we want to offer customers a very nice experience, a really smooth customer experience," he said. "These kinds of things, we are going to make them happen at a really excellent level, giving flexibility to our dealers and customers."

The final piece of the picture is powerful driving dynamics, and that circles back to the planned new powertrain technologies.

The upcoming hybrid system will provide "power and serenity" by enabling driving in quietude, Kargar said. The setup will cover the same range of output as Infiniti's current lineup, from around 200 hp to 400 hp.

Infiniti also will offer a pure electric vehicle, though Kargar declined to give details.

Infiniti's global annual volume peaked at 249,000 vehicles in 2018, before dropping 24 percent to 188,994 last year. Kargar wants to maintain market share in 2020, even as sales fall as the result of the brand's pullout from Europe and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, Infiniti expects sales to rebound on the back of the new QX55 and QX60.

But Kargar said he is not pushing volume and not talking sales targets.

"We didn't impose any number," he said. "When you do that, you align everyone on the number, on the volume. Volume is very important, but volume is not our objective."

Growth will come partly from tapping markets such as China, Kargar said. As the world's biggest luxury market, China has huge potential for Infiniti. In 2019, China was the brand's No. 2 market behind the United States. But Infiniti sold three times as many vehicles in the U.S. as in China.

Then there is the home market of Japan, where the Infiniti brand doesn't even exist. The only Infiniti models offered in Japan are the Q50, which is sold under the name Nissan Skyline, and the Q70, sold as the Nissan Fuga. Nissan toyed with giving a previous iteration of the Skyline an Infiniti badge, while still marketing it as a Nissan. But it reverted to the Nissan oval in a face-lift.

Kargar didn't rule out someday launching Infiniti in Japan. But the first focus is on the 23 other world markets where Infiniti has a footprint.

"If you ask, 'Are you going to be in Japan one day?' I will not say no. I will not say yes," he said. "I will say, the first priority for me is to make sure we are great in these 23 countries.

"Then, once we are sure about that and have this strong content, we can look at other markets, even Japan."