Nissan's is yanking its premium brand Infiniti from Australia late in 2020 after almost a decade, a local media report said.
The company will keep selling and servicing cars through its five dealers (two in each of Sydney and Melbourne and one in Perth) until this time, or until existing stock is exhausted, caradvice.com.au reported.
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Beyond this it must offer sales and servicing support on all sold vehicles for a decade. It will presumably do this through Nissan's Australia-wide service centres and parts facilities, the report added."The company will confirm these arrangements in the months to come," Infiniti told caradvice.
It also hopes to re-allocate Infiniti Australia head office staff to roles within Nissan where possible.
Infiniti launched there in mid-2012. It has since sold 3,987 vehicles, an average of 570 units a year or 47 a month.
In contrast rival Toyota premium brand Lexus averages 800 cars a month.
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By GlobalDataMercedes-Benz Australia sold 4,050 vehicles in June alone (including commercials such as the X-class), meaning it sold more units in one month than Infiniti over seven years.
Caradvice noted Infiniti joins a list of brands that gave up on Australia after unsuccessful attempts at this "uber-competitive" market (more than 60 brands, a modest 1.1m sales overall) such as Opel, Chery and Proton.
Infiniti had already announced its intention to exit western Europe by early 2020, to axe diesel engines from its range, and "realise more synergies with Nissan…." to reduce R&D costs.
Nissan itself began sales, and later, CKD assembly in the country in the 1960s, eventually taking over a former VW assembly and manufacturing plant and moving to full manufacture of some models by the 1980s. The plant in Clayton, Victoria was closed in 1994 as import restrictions were lifted making local build less viable.
