Infiniti to make cars in China from 2014

Infiniti is the latest luxury car maker to set up a production plant in China in its quest to increase global sales and cut the costs. They just confirmed the Xiangyang plant in Hubei Province as the production site and Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd., Nissan’s joint venture company in China, responsible for the operations. Production begins in 2014 with two models to be named later. The plant currently produces Nissan Tiana and Murano, and runs at 130K units a year. When Infiniti comes in, they will invest about 315 million USD in expanding the site so it can handle production of the new models and increase its volume to 250K. The Chinese Infinitis are initially to meet the increasing demand in the Chinese market. But they may eventually end up in other countries as well. This is all part of Infiniti’s plans to incrase its global sales to 500,000 units by 2016. The Infiniti brand was first introduced to China in 2007, and continues to strengthen its product lineup and expand its sales network to satisfy customers in the growing Chinese luxury segment. “The localization of Infiniti at our Xiangyang plant is a significant milestone for us,” said Kimiyasu Nakamura, president of Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd (DFL). “It proves that we are fully capable of producing luxury vehicles of the highest quality standards here in China, at the same level of quality as the Tochigi plant, its mother plant, in Japan,” he added.