Nissan Motor Co. plans to increase dealerships and showrooms in China for the luxury Infiniti brand to as many as 150 by 2016 from 60 now, a company executive said.
"We won't give up long-term investment plans in this market merely because of short-term market fluctuations," Allen Lu, managing director of Infiniti's China unit, said at a briefing in Beijing last week. "The winter for (the) luxury car market is looming and consumers are going to benefit."
The price of Infiniti cars may drop by 10 percent to 20 percent in China after the company starts local production, which is exempt from import tax, Lu said. Nissan plans to begin manufacturing two models for the luxury brand in China in 2014.
Nissan Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn is counting on China to help growth and meet a target of more than tripling Infiniti sales in five years, taking its share of the global luxury car market to 10 percent.
The automaker, Japan's second-biggest, set up Infiniti's headquarters in Hong Kong in May to boost China sales.
Nissan, which introduced the Infiniti nameplate to China in 2007, plans to increase brand sales in the country by 50 percent this year, Ghosn said on May 22.
Last year, Infiniti's deliveries in China climbed almost 40 percent to 19,000 units, making it the brand's second-largest market after the United States.
