Infiniti to leave western Europe, end QX30 and Q30 production
Nissan's luxury brand will be restructured to focus on the US and China, as well as its electrification plans, spelling the end for its tie-up with Mercedes-Benz in the compact SUV space.
Infiniti, Nissan's luxury marque, will exit the western European market by early 2020, and cease production of the Q30 and QX30 models in England.
The company says it will "focus the brand on its largest growth markets, specifically North America and China", but today's announcement is claimed to have "no impact" on the brand's presence in eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
With the brand set to leave Europe, the marque will "discontinue diesel offerings", seek to improve its residual values, and "realise more synergies with Nissan Motor Company".
Infiniti will also press on with plans to "electrify its portfolio from 2021 onward". The brand's key focus now will be crossovers from the US market, and the five new models it will launch in China over the next five years.
Production of the Q30 and QX30 models will end at Nissan's Sunderland, UK plant in July this year. Reports in the UK indicate around 250 people are directly employed in the production of the two cars.
The twins are produced exclusively in the UK, and are based on the same front-wheel drive platform as the previous-generation Mercedes-Benz GLA.
Despite entering a hot market segment, the Q30 and QX30 have proven to be slow sellers globally. Just 170 of the pair were sold in Australia last year, with the marque notching up just 649 sales in total.
According to Car Sales Base, the brand sold just 6250 vehicles across Europe last year, down from 12,571 in 2017.
By way of comparison, Lexus managed 47,170 sales across Europe in 2018, which trailed Alfa Romeo (83,438), Jaguar (84,311), Land Rover (150,283), and Volvo (319,048) by a significant margin.
The German marques still continue to dominate in Europe, with Mercedes-Benz (877,988), BMW (817,354), and Audi (713,868) well ahead of everyone else.
Australia
“Within the Western European context of falling sales and the prospect of increasing investment costs towards future legislation and product complexity, there is no longer a sustainable and viable business case for this region," Infiniti said in a statement.
"So Infiniti is restructuring the brand to focus on its largest growth markets, specifically North America, China and Asia - of which Australia is a part of - while withdrawing from Western Europe.”
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