The AutoIndustrie Blog: Infiniti's Asia Pacific Assault - Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia

Back in 2008, Carlos Ghosn, President and CEO of Nissan Motor Co. revealed to investors and the press of the Nissan GT2012 (Growth and Trust 2012) strategy for the next 5-years.

Source : Nissan's FY2007 Financial Results and New Mid-term Plan, May 13th, 2008

One of the targets for Nissan's luxury arm, Infiniti is to double its sales volume from the year 2007's 150,000 units per year to 300,000 units. Obviously it would not be sufficient to milk Infiniti's existing key market centers of Japan and USA to achieve these additional sales. Geographical expansion for the Infiniti brand has been on the cards for the past 3 or 4 years, with a total of 25 countries being earmarked.

In the Asia Pacific region, official announcements have been made for Infiniti's entry into Australia and Indonesia while some very credible insider news have suggested introduction for Singapore as well. Malaysia have been mentioned but nothing has been firmed up yet.

In Australia, the Infiniti brand will be launched by September 2012, represented a newly setup entity Infiniti Cars Australia. The company will be lead by the management of Nissan Australia with a lot of major executives from BMW, Mercedes, Saab and even Swatch have been headhunted over. There is however no confirmation yet on the models to be introduced, as these will be dictated by their individual model lifecycles.

In Indonesia, Infiniti was launched this month and is represented by Indomobil, who is also the importer for Audi and Volvo vehicles in Indonesia, as well as the local partner for Volkswagen and Suzuki. Indonesian market Infiniti's model line-up includes the :
FX series SUV (FX37 with 3.7 V6 and FX50 5.0 V8), aimed at Lexus RX series
M series sedan (M37 with 3.7 V6), aimed at BMW 5-series and Mercedes E-class
G series coupe (G37 with 3.7 V6), a grown up Nissan 370Z whose limited coupe body appeal would make it a niche player but serving as a halo-hero car for the Infiniti brand rather than aimed at any specific European competitors.
Indonesia enjoys a free trade agreement (FTA) with Japan, which allows Indomobil it to import CBU Japanese made cars at lower taxes (3.5-liters and above only).

In Singapore, we started hearing rumors of Infiniti's return to Singapore (it was sold by Nissan's importer for Singapore, Tan Chong Group for a short while in the late 90s) since the end of 2010. Wearnes have been rumored to have been appointed as the distributor although the management of Wearnes acknowledged on-going discussion with Nissan Motor Co. but cautioned that nothing has been signed with so far. Oddly, Nissan's importer Tan Chong were not involved. Wearness is the importer for Jaguar, Volvo and Land Rover in Singapore. It is also rumored to be close to securing a deal to import the Mclaren MP4 cars. Outside of Singapore, Wearnes runs dealerships for VW and Volvo in Malaysia, as well as Mazda dealerships in Thailand. No information on the possible models to be introduced.

In Malaysia, there have been some rumors but none with sufficient details to make them reliable. Plus, the fact that Tan Chong, which distributes Nissan vehicles in both Malaysia and Singapore were not selected to represent the Infiniti brand, suggest that even if this is happening, it might not be with the Tan Chong group. Plus, (and this is unsubstantiated comment, based on nothing but hearsay) the politics of this country suggest that the ownership structure of Tan Chong Group would make it difficult to obtain sufficient import permits to make Infiniti a viable business proposition. On a separate note, like Indonesia, Malaysia also enjoys Malaysia-Japan FTA, which allows it to import high capacity CBU Japan cars at a lower tax rate.

Update : Edaran Tan Chong Motor have confirmed that Infiniti will be launched in Malaysia by Q4 this year via Inspired Motors. Inspired Motors is a new corporate entity established as a subsidiary to the Tan Chong Group. The company explains that Inspired Motors is a retail arm established as a joint venture between Edaran Tan Chong Motor and Auto Dunia, which is the franchise holder. Auto Dunia was previously the franchise holder for Audi and VW vehicles in Malaysia, but little was done to grow the brand. Auto Dunia eventually gave up the Audi and VW franchise to Euromobil, a division of DRB-HICOM, which would eventually also give up the VW franchise to the newly established factory backed VW Group Malaysia. The name Inspired Motors, is of course "inspired" by Infiniti's tagline "Inspired Performance."