Infiniti taking steps to distance itself from Nissan

Every auto company has a grand strategic vision that guides it's development. By connecting some of the dots and news stories that have come out regarding Infiniti, we can see how the brand is attempting to distance itself from Nissan and elevate itself to face the big dogs in the luxury market.

By looking at the upcoming Infiniti models, we can see that Infiniti is doing far more than repackaging Nissan vehicles. The Q30 and QX30 are both being built on a platform that has been jointly developed with Daimler. Obviously Daimler knows a thing or two about creating platforms that are appropriate for luxury vehicles. So in the next two vehicles that are going to be released by Infiniti are really a departure from Nissan.



Yet another way that Infiniti is aiming to distance itself from Nissan is through its performance label, Eau Rouge. Currently this can be seen in the Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge Concept. Infiniti has confirmed that there will be a production model of the Q50 Eau Rouge, but they have run into a slight hiccup since there is already an Eau Rouge trademark on a famous F1 bend. Tech Times writes, "The Eau Rouge bend is an uphill portion of the Spa-Francorchamps race track that was built back in the 1920s. The bend is known as "the most beautiful and dangerous" in car racing, as said in A.J. Baime's Go Like ****: Ford, Ferrari and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans." No word on how the naming issue will resolve yet.

Infiniti has also decided to further separate its design team from that of Nissan. It already opened a dedicated design studio in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and in the near future Infiniti will be opening 3 more dedicated design studios. Those studios will be opening in London, San Diego and Shanghai. Hopefully, this will give Infiniti an even more distinct design language from Nissan. WE should be able to see the results of this dedicated design space as Infiniti reveals 5 new models over the next 5 years.