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Infiniti Hopes Uniqueness Will Win Hearts of Young Chinese Buyers

A lot of people have criticized German premium cars all look the same and are all offered in boring shades of black and grey. Of course, it's equally true that everybody buys German, if we're to look at their sales figures.
Infini Q50 1 photo
Photo: Infiniti
Audi, BMW and Mercedes, plus to some degree Porsche, have left very little room for the competition. Lexus has its hybrid car buyers, Volvo its architects and safety-conscious folks and Cadillac the Americans. But what about Infiniti?

Nissan's luxury division was created from nothing, just like Lexus, and while they had the desire to make a big name for themselves, that has yet to happen. The Japanese automaker has set an ambitions goal for itself: 10% of the world premium market by 2020. And oddly, China plays a crucial part in this.

In a recent interview, Infiniti president Johan de Nysschen said his company is well suited to the Chinese market. Premium car buyers there tend to be more interested in what's currently on offer, not heritage. De Nysschen said that while Mercedes, Audi and BMW are well established, they have become commonplace and ubiquitous.

Starting next year, Infiniti will start offering a locally produced long wheelbase version of the Q50 sedan and the QX50, this being the old model we knew as the EX.

"Infiniti will be a boutique brand," de Nysschen said. "Rather than try to park an Infiniti in every driveway, we would like to park them in the right driveways and present the product and the brand that will appeal to those people who want something different."

That sounds like a bit of corporate talk, but Infiniti did move its headquarters there and offers lots of styling and flashy equipment, just like the Chinese want, so we'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

Via autonews.com
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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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