In late January, 2017, the first examples were spotted on Auckland ports. By February the company's intentions had been formally confirmed. And, two-and-a-half years later the story has come to an end. Yes; luxury car manufacturer Infiniti are pulling up stumps in New Zealand.
The announcement comes after a similar announcement was made yesterday in Australia. Infiniti — Nissan's luxury arm — had been trying to crack the Aussie market for approximately seven years, with slow sales among the key reasons behind its failure. Just 3987 Infinitis have been sold in Australia over that period, at an average of just 47 units a month.
This in the same country that buys approximately 800 Lexus units a month.
Infiniti sales in New Zealand have been similarly disappointing over the last two years despite a relatively versatile product mix; ranging from the Q60 sports coupe and Q50 BMW 3-Series rival, to the QX30 compact crossover (sharing its bones with the Mercedes-Benz GLA) and the ginormous QX80. Just 47 Infinitis have been registered so far this year.
The brand has confirmed in local communications that it will remain active until late 2020, at which point its distribution agreement will be discontinued.
“Our top priority at present is to ensure all existing INFINITI owners can continue to enjoy the levels of support and service they currently receive for their vehicles,” said Infiniti New Zealand's Sam Waller.
“As you would expect from a premium brand, we will be in direct contact with all our valued customers.”
The decision to pull out of Australia (and perhaps also New Zealand) has been linked to an increased focus on the Chinese and North American markets. The dual announcements follow Infiniti's earlier announcement that it would also be exiting Western Europe early next year.
Along with tweaking its geographical footprint, Infiniti also plans to bench all of its diesel models, and hopes to reduce its development costs by "[realising] more synergies with Nissan".
Those wanting reasoning behind Infiniti's struggle on both sides of the ditch specifically simply need to look just beyond the surface of their current line-up. Each model is built on aged architecture. The underpinnings of the Q60 can be traced back to the 2007 Nissan Skyline, while the QX80's 'F-Alpha' underpinnings can be traced back to the 2005 Nissan Pathfinder.
Models on this side of the ditch were priced sharply (given the power and standard features available), but they were always going to struggle against a luxury opposition that gets incremental updates on a much more frequent basis. A limited dealership network in New Zealand exacerbated matters, with Infiniti stores located exclusively in Auckland and Christchurch.