Infiniti will turn over new Leaf

Nissan has told UK media it plans to push the Leaf platform up market into Infiniti product.

But don't expect to see it until 2014 because the company will probably need that much time to work out the product differentiation factors essential to its success.

In the wake of unveiling of its first production hybrid at the Geneva Auto Show (pictured), Japanese luxury brand Infiniti has confirmed to UK media that its first electric vehicle will be a compact four-door based on parent company Nissan's Leaf platform.

This is the first such confirmation since Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn triggered speculation to this effect late last year with an announcement that Infiniti would go to market with an EV sometime in the next few years.

Above the underpinnings, it will be distinctly different to the Leaf. It will need to be especially once its origins become common knowledge.

For upscale marques like Infiniti and Lexus, product and brand differentiation are critical in distancing them from more the more humbly positioned product of their parent companies.

Common knowledge that its ES300 was essentially an $80,000 chocolate-dipped Camry, front-wheel drivetrain and all, didn't serve Lexus well.

Toyota has since sunk billions into keeping Lexus product unique, not just in its exterior design but right down to the fundamentals.

Mazda's half-hearted attempt at following Toyota and Nissan upmarket with its Eunos brand was in large part killed by proximity to Mazda's own fare -- most Eunos cars were sold as Mazdas in many parts of the world.

And buyer perception of the Maybach as little more than a tarted up S-Class for three times the price has all but scotched Daimler's pitch into million dollar territory. BMW's Rolls Royce has fared much better by virtue of its through-and-through uniqueness.

It appears, however, that Infiniti is allowing plenty of time to get it right. The car is not due out until 2014.

By that time, it's a good bet that battery technologies will have advanced far enough for premium versions to arise, giving companies like Nissan/Infiniti and Toyota/Lexus the space to give their primo brands a performance edge.

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