Infiniti commits to 'huge' Aussie challenge

Infiniti will not ‘do an Opel’ and disappear from the Australian new car market despite the “huge” challenge it faces in becoming successful here.

That was the declaration of the company’s interim MD and CEO Peter Jones at this week’s launch of the Q50 prestige sedan, in an attempt to quash question marks over the local future of Nissan’s global luxury brand.

Doubts about Infiniti’s viability have persisted since launch. It arrived with an aged line-up of cars and still only offers them through east coast dealers. The Melbourne showroom was months late opening because the original franchisee handed the deal back.

Last September pricing was cut dramatically, followed by the almost immediate departure of general manager Kevin Snell.

Since then Infiniti global boss Johan de Nysschen has admitted the competitiveness of the Australian market was “underestimated" and that current sales levels are “unsustainable”.

That latter comment refers to the sale of just 304 Infinitis here in 2013.

That Opel barely lasted one year in Australia before pulling the pin as a stand alone brand in August 2013 is an all too recent reminder of the difficulties of breaking into this hyper-competitive market.

“In terms of the Opel experience and things like that, we don’t want to go down that path,” Jones declared.

He cited the launch of the Q50 as evidence Infiniti had a long-term commitment to the Australian market.

“The fact of the matter is if we continue to sell the 304 cars we sold last year forever and that was our only outlook then it would be questionable,” Jones said.

“Then we would not have invested in bringing this car here.

“Why would I bring more cars into the market if we were going to pull out? It would do my head in.”

While refusing to specify what sort of sales boost the Q50 would deliver in numbers, he said it was expected to provide a “significant lift” otherwise “there would be an issue for us”.

Jones made it clear Infiniti faced a tough and long fight to make headway in Australia.

“The awareness is quite low,” he conceded. “When people look at it (an Infiniti) often they don’t know what it is. It will take advertising dollars, promotion dollars, you blokes (motoring journalists) writing about these cars.

“It’s going to be a whole heap of things but initially it’s about getting onto people’s consideration sets and once you do that and once you start selling them and getting them on the road that will help us.

“I do not underestimate the size of the challenge. It is huge.”

That challenge won’t be helped by a paucity of fresh metal, with no new model launches currently planned for 2015.

Jones defended last September’s Infiniti price cuts of up to $13,100 as simply being realistic about where the transaction (rather than official) price of the various models sat.

“If we hadn’t taken that action we wouldn’t have sold a car,” he admitted. “While it looks like a big re-price it’s actually around the price you were paying.”

The aggressive pricing philosophy continues with the Q50, which offers more equipment and undercuts its established German rivals; the Audi A4, BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class.

“When you have a car like this that has everything in it and you are up against a car that has a very strong badge where sometimes the badge is more important, it doesn’t matter what you do on the value adjusted price.

“If it is the same price they are going to go for the badge rather than the whistles and bells, right?

“When you are starting from behind the eight-ball because you don’t have the brand equity that the Europeans have then you have to be reactive – by that I mean you have to be dynamic and always looking at your market and understanding where you are.”

Jones is unequivocal the growth of the brand will be slow – a consistent message espoused by representatives of the brand since the brand’s return to Australia (the Q45 was sold here between 1993-1995) was announced in March 2011.

“Everything we are doing is being done in a steady way. We are going to build the network in a steady fashion and make sure all our dealers are viable.”

However, he said the appointment of a Perth dealer was “imminent”, although he was unprepared to detail timing of Adelaide and/or regional outlets.

Jones has been acting as interim MD and CEO of Nissan and Infiniti in Australia since the departure of American Bill Peffer in October 2013. He has been interviewed to take over the roles permanently but has yet to be notified if he has been successful.

The Q50 launch also saw the public debut of Snell’s replacement Campbell Yorke, who became Infiniti GM in December. Yorke shifted from a product planning role within Nissan and before that spent 15 years at Mercedes-Benz.

Andrei Zaitzev, who moved to Infiniti from Ateco Automotive to become the national sales manager around the same time as Snell left to form his own marketing consultancy – and briefly and immediately found himself running the company – has left for a position in the automotive retail sector.

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