Nissan Outlines Plans for Infiniti Sales in China

Nissan Motor Co. targets annual sales of 100,000 Infiniti brand luxury vehicles in China by 2019 with more than half produced locally, The Nikkei reports.

Daniel Kirchert, managing director of Infiniti China, tells the newspaper he aims to hike the brand's market share in the country from 1% now to at least 7% in five years. The company is preparing to launch local production of its Q50 sedan and midsize QX50 crossover at a plant in Xiangyang run by Nissan's joint venture with Donfeng Motor Corp.

Infiniti, which entered the Chinese market seven years ago, boosted sales 54% to 17,000 units last year and so far has nearly tripled its volume in 2014, according to The Nikkei. The brand's volume is dwarfed by Volkswagen AG's Audi unit, which sold 490,000 luxury vehicles in China last year.

Kirchert says Infiniti will expand its dealer network in China from 60 currently to 80 by year-end and to 120 by the end of 2016.

Nissan is counting on Kirchert to generate results similar to those he delivered as head of BMW AG's China operations. The Nikkei says he is credited with leading an eightfold surge in BMW sales in six years before being recruited by Nissan last year.