Infiniti's Etherea on the way

Infiniti has only just announced pricing for its inaugural product range in Australia, but the prestige brand is already doing the sums for two other significant new models.

By contrast with the FX and M Series models that will be available from launch next month — or the G37 models to follow later in the year — the two other vehicles in the pipeline for Oz are very different indeed.

One is the small, front-drive hatchback that will be based on the Etherea concept unveiled earlier in the year at Geneva. The other is the LE electric vehicle concept that made its debut in New York back in April.

According to Kevin Snell, General Manager for Infiniti Australia, the Etherea is definitely going into production and will be underpinned by the same architecture as the Mercedes-Benz A and B-Class cars. 

"It's going to be built by Magna-Steyr and it will utilise the MFA platform from Daimler," he told motoring.com.au yesterday.

And it will be coming to Australia?

"Absolutely. It goes into production in Europe from 2014 and we would hope or expect to see that in that first year..."

Is there a danger, we asked Mr Snell, that the front-drive Etherea might dilute the Infiniti brand image if brought in too soon anyway? The company is carefully managing its presence in the market and emphasising the sports and performance focus of its mainstream models.

"I'm not particularly concerned about that," answered the Infiniti boss. "The car that we're working on is a great car and it will stand strong on its own two feet."

As for the production version of the LE electric vehicle concept, Mr Snell would like it to go on sale in Australia, but the company has to establish that the business case for it will stack up.

"The concept shown in New York was the LE... it's a mid-sized sedan; goes into production from 2014. We're definitely keen on it and working towards adding it to the portfolio in that timeframe as well.

"Nothing's definite until a year out, but it's in our current plans... We're keen on it, we're planning for it, and 2014 is the best estimate of the likely timing at this stage.

When Nissan/Infiniti's Andy Palmer spoke with motoring.com.au about the EV days prior to the Geneva motor show, he described it as a 'D-segment sedan', but Mr Snell explained that the vehicle, which shares a lot of component modules with the Nissan LEAF, is actually smaller than that.

"It's going to be similar to the G [Series] sedan, what I call a mid-size sedan; a 3 Series or an A4 type car," he said.

Images show Etherea (white) and LE (silver)

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