Infiniti’s global headquarters will drop in Hong Kong next year or put into production in China

On November 1, 2011, Nissan Motor announced that it will establish a global luxury brand Infiniti in Hong Kong, China, and said that it may launch Infiniti in China next year.

Infiniti's new global headquarters will promote Nissan Power 88, Nissan’s mid-term six-year plan, and reach Infiniti’s annual global sales target of 500,000 vehicles. Nissan will employ about 100 employees from its headquarters in Japan, the United States and Europe. Nissan’s new entity, Nissan Global Company Limited, will also be located next to Infiniti’s global headquarters. Infiniti World Headquarters and Nissan Global Ltd. NGL will start operations in April 2012.

The functions of Nissan and Infiniti in Hong Kong will include some global marketing, public relations and logistics to take advantage of Hong Kong's advantages in the media and other areas, and to take advantage of its location to cater to the growing demand for luxury cars in the Chinese, Indian and Southeast Asian markets. However, the specific functions of the new headquarters have yet to be announced.

Afterwards, Nikkei Nikkei News quoted Nissan Motors’s spokesman Shiro Nagai as saying: “Nissan is considering producing Infiniti in China, but it has not made any decisions yet.” Nikkei predicts that Nissan will select its partner in China, Dongfeng Motor Corporation. The factory in Hubei Province serves as an Infiniti production site. Infiniti is currently produced at its factories in Tochigi and Fukuoka, Japan. The total annual production of the two plants is around 200,000.

Despite the current slowdown in the overall growth of the Chinese auto market, the demand for luxury cars remains strong. BMW sales in China rose 20.9% in September. Audi's cumulative sales in China in September before the same period last year sales, Mercedes-Benz in the first 9 months Increased by 32.8%. It is expected that the total sales of Infiniti in the Chinese market this year will reach 20,000.

If Infiniti can eventually settle in a Chinese factory, Nissan will be the first Japanese car manufacturer to produce luxury cars in China.