Infiniti ambitious on closing sales gap in China with Audi and Lexus

Everyone seems to be at war with Audi as companies fight to top the sales charts and close marketing gaps by making cars that cater to almost every need. As a result, word is that Infiniti aims to quadruple their market share in China’s luxury auto market to combat Audi within the next five years.

CEO Carlos Ghosn said at a press conference that he plans on expanding Infiniti’s share of the global luxury market at least 8% by 2016, starting with China’s luxury market.

“We entered the China market even later than Taiwan and South Korea, and that’s very ridiculous to anybody who has a bit of knowledge about the industry,” said Allen Lu, formerly of Ferrari S.p.A. and Infiniti China’s future managing director. “But, it’s like running a marathon — you can’t tell who will win after just 10 kilometers.”

Ghosn also set a very big goal for Infiniti, saying that he wants the luxury brand to produce and sell up to 500,000 units a year globally by March of 2017. With today’s statistics, that would put Infiniti’s market share at about 10% by then.

“The real challenge for Infiniti is to get on the consideration list for luxury-auto shoppers in China,” said Bill Russo, a senior adviser at consulting company Booz & Co. in Beijing, “it should be possible for Infiniti to carve out a piece of this expanding pie.”

– By: Chris Chin

Source: Automotive News