Infiniti says no to R-rated models

Australian buyers love ultra-high performance variants of prestige cars.

Any self-respecting prestige brand must offer the locals a peak performance range of models, whether it's Audi's RS line-up, BMW's M cars or Mercedes-Benz's AMGs — also joined in the upper echelon of the sports/luxury market segment by Jaguar's supercharged R models and even Lexus, with the V8-powered IS F.

But the latest prestige brand to enter the market, Infiniti, has no such product to offer those buyers for whom too much power is never enough. Kevin Snell, Infiniti Australia's General Manager, argues that the company is not in dire need of such brand-boosting variants.

"We are a performance/luxury brand from the start," he told motoring.com.au earlier this week. "Our standard cars [offer] quite dramatic proportions, they have quite performance-oriented engines. They don't have — in this early roll-out — any low-output or low-powered engines..."

In essence, it's the Infiniti exec's view that these 'tuned' prestige models are often the counterweights to balance the brand image, which can be dragged in a different direction by mud-plugging SUVs, people movers, fuel-saving hybrids and even light commercial vehicles.

"Some brands are performance brands and they use [niche market performance models] as the ultimate expression of their heritage," explained Mr Snell. "Other brands introduce sports or halo cars to try and cast an image across the rest of their range, which aren't so sports or performance-oriented.

"For us, we don't see it as being critical in the short term, because our standard offering is very much performance/sports driver-oriented cars — and we believe we'll establish a strong reputation with those products in their normal guise. But... over time we'll look for further opportunities to enhance that."

Given an opportunity, in the form of an M Series-based competitor to M5 or E63 for instance, could Infiniti Australia influence the development of such a vehicle? As happens with other prestige brands in Australia, Infiniti would need to apply leverage by roping in other markets with a similar gap to fill.

"Every year, through our annual planning process [we decide] where there's an opportunity, and those opportunities can be based on volume, they can be based on brand, they can be based on whatever," said Mr Snell. "Logically though, for any development of a car to take place, it needs a business case and a scale of opportunity to justify the investment in doing it— or the return in doing it. If we can do enough volume ourselves... then we can absolutely influence that [investment]. If it requires a volume from a lot of other markets to do it, then we need to find some friends around the globe and... say [to them]: 'Hey, we've got this opportunity, this idea, which we're going to really push hard... and do the numbers... is there an opportunity for you guys as well?'

"We can look to find support in the business... it's a case-by-case question... It depends on what you're talking about, it depends on how much the investment it is. There's gotta be a business case for it..."

It may be hard to build much of a business case for a mega-performance M Series or FX in Australia, but Infiniti is globally committed to building a flagship to cap off the entire product range. The company has come good on its promise to build two prototypes based on the EMERG-E concept unveiled in Geneva four months ago. One of those cars turned up at the recent Goodwood Festival of Speed, so the car is clearly a promotional vehicle (literally) more than a test bed for a future production model, but Mr Snell says that the company will develop a high-end sports car. It may or may not incorporate some or all of the concept car's design elements.

"One of the things that we've identified, that we would like to have in the portfolio is a genuine halo sports car and there are three or four different ways in the business we could execute such a car, of which, EMERG-E is one potential design and technology direction we [could] explore and evaluate," he said.

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