Do Over: Reinventing Infiniti. Again. – The Big Picture

Roland Krüger has skied to the South Pole. Twice. The second time, solo. Spending 55 days on skis, tackling an unrelenting uphill slog from sea level to more than 9,000 feet across the vast, white, empty underbelly of the planet, is something that requires gritty determination, stoic self-reliance, and unwavering self-belief. Which probably makes Roland Krüger well-suited to being the man now running Infiniti.

Infiniti started life in 1985 as Project Horizon, a task force set up inside Nissan to create a new luxury performance brand for the U.S. market. The Infiniti brand was announced in 1987, and its first car, the Q45 sedan, was launched in 1989.

The Q45 was equally as sophisticated and well-built as the Lexus LS 400 that was launched the same year, and it was also more entertaining to drive. But while the LS 400 is remembered as the car that sent Mercedes-Benz into a tailspin, forcing expensive last-minute engineering changes to the W140 S-Class, the Q45 is mostly remembered for having an ad campaign that didn’t show the car and a badge like a Texas belt buckle instead of a grille.

Nissan, like Toyota, had spent a lot of time, talent, and money developing a sedan that in terms of technical expertise and quality execution was the equal of anything from the luxury car establishment. Only problem was, like Toyota, Nissan didn’t truly understand what it had labored so mightily to create. Before long the Infiniti badge had been slapped on quotidian Pathfinders and Primeras gussied up with wood ‘n’ leather interiors.

Rebuilding the Infiniti brand DNA is going to take consistency over a long period of time.

Luxury is where the real money is in the car business these days. Luxury or premium brands only total 10 to 12 percent of overall vehicle sales worldwide, but they account for a hefty 50 percent of global auto industry profits. The math is compelling: With a few notable exceptions, there is a surprisingly small difference between a luxury car and a rental lot queen in terms of basic design, engineering, hardware, and manufacturing costs.

When Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn, a man with a gimlet eye for the bottom line, realized this a few years back, he figured Infiniti was the answer. It was, after all, the nearest thing Nissan had to a premium brand. But the back catalogue of iconic Infinitis, vehicles that might clearly define the brand’s DNA, is painfully thin. Think Q45, G35, FX50, and you’re pretty much done. That’s not much of a knife to take to the Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Jaguar, Range Rover, and even Cadillac gunfight.

This paucity of icon cars means not even Infiniti insiders can clearly articulate what the brand stands for. Ghosn says Infiniti is not about doing what everyone else is doing, that it is not about copying traditional, conservative notions of luxury.

“We will not try to be all things to all people, but everything to some people,” he says. Yes, but what does that look like as an automobile?

Roland Krüger hopes you think it looks like the new Q60 coupe, a chic two-door that riffs on many of the design cues established with the 2009 Essence concept car. Or perhaps like the QX30, the compact crossover that’s built on the same platform as the Mercedes-Benz GLA. Or maybe the forthcoming QX50, an Audi Q5 and BMW X3 rival that will be powered by Nissan’s radical new variable-compression, 2.0-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder engine. Or even the swoopy replacement for the Q70 sedan that’s taking shape in the Infiniti design studio in Atsugi, Japan.

It’s going to take more than the launch of a handful of cars and crossovers to turn Infiniti into a successful global luxury performance brand, though, no matter how well-styled or well-equipped they may be. And that transformation is certainly not going to happen overnight. Rebuilding the Infiniti brand DNA is going take a consistency of application and execution over a long period of time.

Sorta like skiing solo to the South Pole.

More from Angus MacKenzie:

• Driver’s Seat: Meet the Man Making Aston Martins Handle
• Remembering Bill Tuckey
• How the Tesla Model 3 Blows the Original Ford Mustang Away

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