Where electrification is concerned, Nissan and Infiniti seem to tell a tale of two mentalities.
Nissan was one of the first brands to embrace electrification with the Nissan Leaf, which was the first mass-produced EV from a mainstream automaker when it was released for the 2011 model year. There’s been little development since then, but the Nissan Ariya electric crossover that was announced in 2020 and is due to launch later this year at least previews some overdue movement in this regard.
Meanwhile, Nissan has announced that 50 per cent of global sales for both the Nissan and Infiniti brands will be made up of electrified vehicles by 2030 and the company will be carbon neutral in its operations by 2050. Yet Infiniti currently has nothing to show for these ambitions. The brand hasn’t offered even so much as a conventional hybrid since 2018 — those early hybrids were ahead of their time, perhaps — and apart from concept cars and teaser videos, no fully battery electric vehicles are formally in the pipeline for Nissan’s luxury division.
On the other hand, Infiniti is set to launch two new flagship vehicles by March 2023, according to Infiniti global Chairman Peyman Kargar. During his recent first visit to Canada, Kargar told a media roundtable those flagships will be a redesigned version of the QX80 large SUV as well as a sedan, calling them segments where the Infiniti brand has “something to say” and where customers expect the brand to be present.
As for electrification, Kargar said the Infiniti timeline will see the brand begin its electric era in 2025, while the majority of its vehicles will be electrified by 2030. In the meantime, he said, Infiniti will offer non-electrified internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, at least in some markets, for the foreseeable future.
Amid suggestions that Infiniti is lagging behind its competitors in its shift toward electrification, Kargar defended the timeline and said the brand is not experiencing any setbacks for not having battery electric vehicles on offer.
“We’re not late in our business plan,” Kargar said. “Infrastructure is not there yet. Customers who have experience with electrified models, you can see still a lot of bad experiences. In our business model, we are preparing that to come by fiscal year 2025, and for us it’s the right timing.”
The reason for keeping ICEs in the line-up follows a similar theme: Kargar said Nissan and Infiniti expect demand for these vehicle types to remain strong, more so in some markets than others, and so they’re going to continue to meet that demand.
“It’s not easy to change priorities in automotive industry.”
“We don’t want to give up customers,” Kargar said. “In some countries, the speed (of electric adoption) is much higher, but in some other countries you need still to keep the offer (of ICEs). If you (ask) me in 10 years, do you change the decision? Perhaps, yes. But because we have certain visibility today which is giving us the confidence that we need to keep different offers, we will see how markets are evolving.”
In recent years, Infiniti’s entire electrification strategy has pivoted. As recently as 2020, the brand was preparing to push its upcoming e-Power technology, which uses an electric platform powered by a combustion engine that acts as a generator for the electric motor. Now, the brand will come to market with battery electric vehicles first due to the number of government regulations requiring it around the world. e-Power continues to be part of the strategy but will now launch later.
“It’s not easy to change priorities in automotive industry, because as you know, when you decide you want to do something in four years, you need to start today,” Kargar said. “But we decided to change the priority. We didn’t cancel things. We decided to change the order of arrival.”
Kargar said this electrification strategy has met with approval from the brand’s dealer base, who see EVs as bringing potential losses to their bottom line.
2022 Infiniti QX55 Photo by Renita Naraine
“First of all, the margin of each car today is lower for electrified cars,” Kargar said. “The aftersales business is much lower. Then you need to make investment: you need to put charging stations in each dealer, you need to train people. There are a lot of constraints. So, (dealers) don’t consider they are late for electrification. We want just to have the visibility of how we go there, which models, and we have time to prepare together our business model around that.
“Then, we are confident because we have time to prepare that with them and to make sure that they are on a safe side and we are on a safe side.”
Instead, Kargar said Infiniti’s focus is currently on improving the customer experience. This doesn’t include some of the changes other brands are making like building coffee shops or other amenities into dealerships, which he called “fake things.” Rather, he plans to work with dealers to improve their physical spaces and help customers have easier access to information about products and electrification, along with an updated online customer experience that includes valet service and increases trust between dealers and customers “in an Infiniti way.”
“Customers are coming for the car,” he said. “They need to understand how it works. They need to understand how they can enjoy it. They need to understand how they can have a peace-of-mind life. That’s something we are going to create around.”
Keyword: “We’re not late”: Infiniti Chairman defends brand’s ease into electrification