It’s a regular practice for car manufacturers to have stand-alone luxury brands. The second variant is to have a tuning department which deals with production of upgraded versions. But Nissan decided to go even further. Infinity, the luxury brand of this Japanese carmaker, announced about launching a subbrand division intended for the production of “loaded” versions of its models. These cars will pit against Mercedes AMG and BMW M series.
«What is absent from our product structure today is a line of really thoroughbred, high-end performance cars that take no prisoners. I don't say that every single Infiniti car line should have such a model. But I do say that we need a high-performance subbrand,” said Johan de Nysschen, Infiniti worldwide president, in his interview to autonews.com. The vice president of Infiniti Americas was even more precise. „We need our own M brand or our own AMG,“ Michael Bartsch told.
Like any other self-respecting manufacturer, Infinity has its factory tuning division — IPL (Infiniti Performance Line). However, its work is focused more on altering the cars’ exterior and production of accessories than introducing any serious technical upgrades. Infinity does not have any subbrands such as Toyota Racing Development or Nismo, performance division of Nissan.
The company is planning to build cars equipped with upgraded and more powerful powertrains and ready to be used on racing tracks. «IPL is there, but it's by no means a fait accompli that it will be the nomenclature for the performance brand for Infiniti. The decision is completely open,» Michael Bartsch added.
The company’s managers are sure that a “hot” subbrand like that would allow Infinity pitting against such companies as Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz with each of them having its own “loaded” subbrand.
Q50 Eau Rouge (on photo), a concept car revealed by Infinity in Detroit, might become the first commercial product of the new and still unnamed company. The concept was named after a high-speed corner of the Spa-Francorchamps race circuit in Belgium. The model’s engine produces 500 hp and 812 Nm of torque. The car is equipped with a number of carbon fibre components including the roof and side skirts.
