Infiniti: Beyond the buzz words

Roland Krueger is no stranger to uphill battles. In fact, he’s conquered the trek from sea level to the South Pole across the frozen wastes of Antarctica twice – the second time solo.

He’s climbed mountains as well – and yet the 50-year-old car company CEO still manages to look ten years younger.

Whether he’ll retain that youthful countenance going forward has a lot to do with you – that is, if you’re a performance and/or luxury car buyer. For if Krueger (pictured) can’t attract you to his brand over the next five years or so, I’m guessing he’ll be looking a bit more haggard.

Or have a very different job.

In this job a propensity for pushing stuff uphill is a definite plus. You see, Kruger is the still relatively new global boss of Infiniti – the would-be premium marque that sits at the top of the Renault-Nissan Alliance’s brand pyramid.

To date Infiniti has survived but not prospered, essentially as a US-only marque. An inconsequential player in the Australian marketplace and almost the same in Western Europe, you might find it surprising to learn Infiniti is 30 years old next year.

But now the clock is really ticking. Driven by the flight to premium brands, the Renault-Nissan Alliance wants Infiniti to be a global success.

It’s not a matter of how many cars, it’s more a matter of how much each premium car adds to the bottom line. It’s hard to make money out of mass market cars. Stick a high-end badge on a vehicle and get the price-tag that goes along with it and the corporate coffers soon look healthier.

By the time, the 30th anniversary of its 1989 debut in the US marketplace with the Q45 luxo sedan comes around, one-time designer and ex-BMW exec Krueger and his team wants, no needs, Infiniti to be known and valued worldwide. Thus, in recent months they’ve been laying new foundations to make it so.

And now Kruger and key Infiniti executives have delivered a plan for the brand under the new banner “Empower the Drive”.

It might be a catchy tagline for ads, but as was outlined in a limited-access and largely off-the-record briefing in Japan last week, Empower the Drive is more than that. It sits as a foundation for the badge, for where it’s going – and a clue to the customers Kruger hopes will come along for the ride.

motoring.com.au was one of only two Australian outlets (and a very limited number globally) invited to the two-day workshop that delivered a deep dive into Infiniti’s future… and an unprecedented look at the products and some of the technology that will seek to put the brand on the global prestige car map.

The event took place at parent company Nissan’s global HQ in Yokohama and the organisation’s research and development hub at Atsugi, a one-hour drive southwest of Tokyo. Atsugi is Nissan’s Skunk Works – no cameras, no peeking. But we peeked…

Most of Infiniti’s senior executive team were on hand for the event. It’s a measure of the importance that Kruger chaired or participated in every session. With any high-level exec, such access is notable – almost two full days are extremely unusual.

Much of what we saw and were told we can’t relay – or in fact even hint about. Think a selection of products out to 2021 or thereabouts.

Other information was embargoed – although I note as this is written some content has already leaked. We’ll stick to the rules. What detail we can deliver is below.

Read on if you’re interested. Tune out if you’re not. But before you do, let me proffer an opinion based on the workshop, new products and interaction with Kruger and his team…

It’s clear Krueger is nothing if not a realist. He knows there have been mistakes made with brand and that with limited new models, there was no ‘good’ time to launch Infiniti in markets like Australia.

Above all, he’s also realistic about the challenges the brand faces. He knows the road ahead for Infiniti is a tough one, but it’s clear that at least now there is a road.

In lifting the veil of secrecy that normally surrounds a brand’s future plans, Infiniti has taken a big gamble.

It’s a measure of the fact, on one hand, that the brand has very little to lose. On the other, it’s a demonstration of the deep desire to succeed – and the willingness to share that…

>> On the new brand pillars
Empowering the Drive will be used on much of the brand collateral we’ll see from Infiniti in the future. Underneath this, and sheer marketing hype for some, are the marque’s new brand values: human, daring and forward.

We’ll spare you the full explanation, but Krueger and crew spent a significant amount of time positioning the values with the brand – in particular that the values would manifest themselves in products and processes and in essence how they would effectively define the customers to which Infiniti appeals.

“I wouldn’t call it a re-positioning. I would call it the next step of development,” Kruger said.

“When you want to be in the market as a challenger brand you have to make a difference and focus on a few things that you are good at and that you develop and offer to your customer.”

Customer experiences that are “frictionless” are an important part of the offering, Kruger says. We couldn’t get an example of how this might work in an ownership environment aside from his assurance it would.

>> On customers…
Infiniti says the key to success in establishing itself is to resonate with a discrete group of customers. And based on qualitative and quantitative research, the brand has identified a group of buyers that it says has values that are consistent with its own.

“We will not try to be all things to all people, but we will be everything for some,” Krueger said, quoting Nissan and Renault CEO, Carlos Ghosn.

He was introducing what Infiniti calls the ‘Progressive Challengers’. This group, says Infiniti, make up close to one in five prestige car ‘intenders’ in markets like the USA and are typically younger than the premium segment norm.

They’re also a group worth chasing, says Hiro Fujita, Infiniti’s head of Business Transformation and Brand Strategy

“The key finding of the research was the size of this potential audience… it’s relevant enough. It assured we are not addressing a niche segment. And from our perspective they [Progressive Challengers] are entirely aligned to our brand values.”

“A key thing from our perspective is that they are comfortable buying alternative brands as long as they align with their values.

“This is particularly important for Infiniti as we are a brand that isn’t necessarily bought on decisions made on the traditional values of luxury.”

>> On technology…
Infiniti previewed world-first engine technology at last week’s workshop. The detail of the technology is embargoed to August 15 but has already leaked in UK media. Suffice it to say [for the moment] the technology reinforces existing trends including downsizing and could potentially be leveraged across a number of vehicle types and segments.

Infiniti also outlined a road map for its adoption of autonomous driving tech. While it says this is a core strength of the brand, we note that companies like Mercedes-Benz and Volvo already have technology in production cars which Infiniti has still has ‘to come’ tags on.

Dubbed ProPilot, the Infiniti (and Nissan) system will leverage existing sensors and (where possible) vehicle hardware (eg: the Q50/60 range’s steer-by-wire Direct Adaptive Steering) in the first instance, to increase pro-active safety before rolling out additional levels of autonomy.

According to the road map, in the first stage Infiniti models will offer brake-to-a-stop and re-start adaptive cruise and single lane-keeping functionality dubbed “go along a lane” by the boffins. This has been dubbed ProPilot 1.0.

ProPilot 2.0 is projected for later roll out and will upgrade this functionality to multi-lane highway capable. Essentially on-ramp to off-ramp. As noted, Benz and Volvo are already basically there on this one.

ProPilot 3.0 is a so-called High Autonomy level which will provide autonomous driving in local streets with traffic light detection, cross-intersection, complex user interaction. This is what most of us would term “autonomous”.

Has Infiniti set an ambitious timeline? You betcha. But in part this is being driven by Japanese government deadlines re a provision for autonomous cars in time for the showcase that is the 2020 Olympics.

Krueger says providing autonomous functionality is in keeping with the brand’s ‘human-centric’ pillar.

“The philosophy is we want to be driver centric, yet passenger minded. We will not take the driver out of the equation and retain an ownership experience that will allow you to experience the car as a performance car. At the same time we will have technologies that will give the car additional capabilities that the driver can choose to use or not.”

Will you be able to buy an Infiniti with this level of autonomous functionality in Australia in 2020? We wouldn’t bet on it – we think the key to the date here are those five Olympic rings.

>> On new products…
“What you’ll see going forward from here is a new brand claim, a new brand look and a new positioning,” Krueger explained in an on-the-record session.

“The first car that comes to market with this positioning is the Q60 and you will also see a new visual identity [for the brand] and also an updated approach in every single touchpoint in our marketing activities.

“We have very clearly identified the key points in our heritage and the key points in our history. And we have identified what we need to take forward from here. We have very clearly identified our target audience, our brand positioning that is tapping into that target audience, and I’m very confident that we can develop Infiniti to the next level becoming one of the top-tier premium brands,” Krueger stated.

Infiniti Australia’s timetable will see the Q30 hatch launched in August 2016 and its higher-riding sibling, the QX30, due in late September.

Late Q3 2016 is also the target timing for the first of the twin-turbo VR30-engined Infinitis – the 298kW Q50. A new performance flagship for the Q50 four-door range, the 298kW car will wear Infiniti’s new red ‘S’ (see below re Krueger's stance on a standalone performance brand). A 224kW VR30-engined Q50 will also join the line up in due course.

Krueger's “brand-shaping” Q60 coupe will arrive in turbo four-cylinder form in November 2016. The engine is the Mercedes-Benz sourced M274 2.0-litre with 155kW and 350Nm.

The VR30 twin-turbo V6 Q60 S will finally arrive Down Under late in Q1 of 2017.

>> On that performance sub brand…
Eau Rouge has been parked as Infiniti’s potential sub-brand. Krueger says the company is pursuing a more holistic, subtle strategy. Performance should be a given for Infiniti, not an add-on his answers suggest.

But there will be a performance hierarchy.

“You will find there’s a little red S [on the Q60] and you’ll find that was on the Q50 when it was launched with 400hp [the new 298kW VR30 V6’s output in imperial measurement]. And you’ll find that [red S] going forward on all our [highest] performance vehicles given they have the right engine capacity and performance,” Krueger explained when quizzed on a sub-brand.

“We will have a red S for performance… A silver S for a performance pack which is wheel and some differentiation, and we will have a blue S for our Direct Response performance hybrids.

“We will have this sort of differentiation. It’s a bit more subtle but it is how we will grade walk our vehicles one by one,” he stated.

Kruger and the Infiniti team define the original FX (now QX70) as one of the brand’s icons and a vehicle that “revolutionised crossovers”.

“The SUV segment is the growing segment. And we will have more developments in this direction,” Krueger hedged.

But when pushed he went further and the clear intent is that a blend of crossovers and SUVs will be a significant part of the brand’s offering in coming generations of vehicles.

The recently unveiled QX Sport showcar is a definitive taste of things to copme in this space from the brand.

“The QX is a very important pillar for the development of Infiniti worldwide. We will show you a little bit of how we see that in the future…

“But if I look back in history, definitely the car that has defined Infiniti is the FX. We have said very clearly [that] we stand for very strong and sporty, powerful crossovers and SUVs. That will definitely be something we want to be known for,” Kruger stated.

Incongruously, perhaps, the first new crossover from the brand, the QX30, has drawn criticism for a lack of differentiation from its Q30 hatch counterpart.

Signed off before Krueger's tenure, the vehicle (based on Benz’s GLA) looks set be one of the first to be freshened under the new Infiniti ‘model’.

“We have seen the opportunity in the C-segment but we also wanted to carry this [model] over into the USA. And this car is the QX30… That’s it [we will not offer the Q30 in the USA],” Kruger stated

“There is a lot of difference in the drive [between Q and QX30] – it is unique to each car. [But] Going forward can we differentiate further.

“We’re working on next steps for that differentiation. As the markets develop, we have more potential,” Krueger stated.

The same goes for the next gen QX70, he says.

“The question is what is the next step [in crossovers]. I think we have a lot of creative engineers,” he said with a wink.