Nissan considering it's luxury brand Infiniti for India

Nissan will introduce it's luxury brand Infiniti in India soon, claims a recent report. Infiniti, which competes directly with Germans trio (Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW) globally, is even looking at assembling possibilities at the parent brand's Chennai facility.

"It is inevitable that Infiniti will come to India, but it needs to be when we have got the right products and the bandwidth to be able to do it. So it is not immediately round the corner but I am pretty sure that it will happen." said, Andy Palmer, Nissan's chief planning officer.

He also added that Infiniti's Q30 hatchback and the QX30 crossover, which are due for their debut, would be the 'obvious' products for India. Both the products would be based on technical partner's Mercedes’ famous MFA front-wheel-drive platform, which currently underpins their own A and B-Class hatchbacks.

In context to the local assembling of its models, he commented that, "It is logical and practically mandatory. Import duty in India is high and this makes it unrealistic to import." The brand could implement the same business model, which it follows currently in Russia, where the production is carried out without much of a local content.

While its sub-brand Datsun is already catering the country's lower end of the market, Infiniti's arrival would help Nissan to grab the luxury chunk of sales and increase its bandwidth in India.

As the already existing luxury brands in the country, such as Audi, Mercedes, BMW and JLR churning out some good numbers, auto majors like Nissan and Toyota are also willing to cash in this opportunity by bringing their global luxury brands in the Indian market. Even the analysts believe that luxury car market is still very much at its initial stage and carries a large scope for future growth.

Source : TOI