Shock tactics: Lexus and Infiniti will continue to stun to win sales

Toyota’s luxury brand, Lexus, and Nissan’s premium brand, Infiniti, have both said they will continue to make vehicles that polarise with their designs in a bid to steal sales from BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi.

Speaking to newswire, Automotive News, Lexus designer, Laurent Bouzige, said his car-maker would continue to make designs that were more “individual and progressive” instead of following the German car-makers' more conservative approach.

Bouzige's boss, Toyota and Lexus global design boss, Tokuo Fukuichi, agrees: “We have to consider how Lexus should position itself against the German three,” Said Fukuichi. “Of course, there are multiple aspects, for example hybrid. The new technology is important, but especially the design. Something that is original and unique and has character, something that gives a raison d’etre for Lexus.”

In the future, instead of following Audi’s formula of shrinking an A3’s design to create an A1, Lexus says it will compete with something completely different, like the recent 2015 LF-SA Geneva concept.

Meanwhile, Infiniti says it will continue to use similar tactics to win sales harnessing its unique “disruptive” design to pinch sales from its established German rivals.

Infiniti director of design, Alfonso Albaisa, said: “We’re an authentic brand, but we don’t play with pedigree and authenticity, it’s something we toy with but we’re a little bit more disruptive,” Albaisa told Automotive News Europe. “People will buy [Infiniti] because [the brand is] not pedigree, we’re adventurous and risk taking.”

Infiniti hopes its breakthrough vehicle, the small Q30 hatch and QX30 SUV that’s based on the Mercedes A-Class platform will be a case in point and help the brand sell an additional 60,000 vehicles per year globally.