“The Infiniti JX35 carries over and improves on the vibrant interior design language that came with the M sedan a few years ago and in the QX SUV last year. We find the JX to be an ideal blend of premium wood, sumptuous leather and judiciously applied brushed aluminum trim,” said the editors at Wards.  Not only did the JX impress with its beautiful features such as the full, panoramic roof and flowing interior lines, it proved to be actually useful.  Instead of being all show, the Infiniti uses innovative sliding, folding-clamshell second row seats that really work.  This took Wards by surprise as access to the usually difficult third row was as easy as pie.  Add in the price to pretty factor, and the $54,800 2013 JX35 is one value packed luxury ride.

Source: WardsAuto

AutoTalk.com was given a chance to speak with Brian Carolin, the senior vice president of sales and marketing for Nissan North America during the 2012 NYIAS. The conversation with Brian was very enlightening and included many fun nuggets of information including the possibilty of new SE-R Sentra. We were also able to provide Brian and his team with a valuable business proposition. To read all this more, check out the full transcription of the interview below.

Brian Carolin is the senior vice president of Sales and Marketing for Nissan North America, Inc. (NNA). He oversees all sales and marketing functions for the Nissan and Infiniti divisions. Carolin joined the company more than 20 years ago and served in leadership roles across our operations in the U.K. and the wider European market. Most recently, Carolin served as senior vice president of Sales and Marketing for Nissan Europe, including the launch of the Infiniti brand across Europe. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Politics and Economics from Newcastle University and a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics.

AutoTalk: Good afternoon Brian. A busy day for you it seems.

Brian: Indeed it has been, but it is a good type of busy.

AutoTalk: Well lets begin, then.  The Altima was just revealed. This is a big vehicle for your company. What plans do you have for the vehicle in the future? In the past there have been performance variants of the Altima, such as the SE-R. Do you plan on moving forward with any sort of performance variant with this new generation of Altima?

Brian: No, we don’t. Our great line-up is going to remain pretty much the same as it is today, with largely carry-over pricing, but with a lot more value-added content and features. The car is going to be very competitive, but it is sort of a mainstream bread and butter segment for us. We do expect to increase share, I know our CEO said yesterday, ‘I see no reason why we cannot challenge number one’. We are already outselling the Accord, and we are definitely going to look to increase our volume and our market share.

AutoTalk: Yesterday it was announced that you will have five all-new vehicle coming in before the year-end, one of which is the new Sentra. How big of a car is this going to be for Nissan? Altima is the best-seller, but with gas prices increasing buyers are trending down towards smaller cars. Do you expect this to be a very good car to seize market share with?

Brian: Well even an Altima, we are going to have 38 MPG. On a mid-size sedan that’s pretty extraordinary, best in class. I think Camry is 35 at the moment, highway, so we are going to have a compelling message. So that’s great, but definitely Sentra, that is a segment where, frankly, we have under-performed as  a brand. We believe this next generation Sentra is going to really hit the mark. That is where we are going to get the biggest show in improvement is with that vehicle, simply because we under-perform today. We average about a five-percent segment market share, yet the brand in total we did an 8.2 record last year. We are hitting about a ten-percent share of the D-segment with Altima, so there is a lot of upside, and to your point, it is going to have a great fuel economy message as well. The package itself, and you’ll hear more about it in the coming moths, but, well,  we are very confident that is going to give us a nice bump.

AutoTalk: The Sentra has always been a small yet slightly performance oriented model, especially with models like the SE-R. It was a great way for people who are interested in driving to approach that. Are you guys going to try to pursue something like that again with the Sentra?

Brian: We will in that segment, yes we will. If you look at the way with our Versa sedan, we dominate that segment. We just launched the Versa sedan last year and its a great great car. So we are going to have a very nice three sedan lineup. We are going to have the Versa sedan, the Sentra and of course the Altima.  So the Sentra is going to come out towards the end of this year, so by then I think we are going to be in a really good place.

AutoTalk: Nissan does have a massive presence in Tennessee. How does having such a strong foothold in the Unites States help your business case, and help to attract customers?

Brian: From all the research we have done, I don’t think consumers pay too much attention to where cars are made, but they are very interested in the kind of corporate presence and employment investment. I think the fact that we have a really big factory now in Smyrna (TN) and another one in Mississippi, we have the Decherd Engine Plant in Tennessee as well, and I think the fact that we are now a big employer really does resonate well with the public. I think that is how people interpret car companies. It’s not ‘where is the Versa made?’, but the fact that Nissan is making a big contribution to employment, and I feel that helps build trust and confidence in the brand.

AutoTalk: Another big vehicle Nissan this year is the Taxi of Tomorrow. How much time and effort went into making that vehicle as good as it could be for the Taxi industry?

Brian: Huge. You would not believe.  A lot of support from our engineering teams in Japan, but also from our design studio on the West coast. These guys took apart Crown Victorias to see what was breaking, and it is very important to make sure the durability and quality of the car is there. But we were also looking at some clever design features. We are going to improve the comfort and convenience for all passengers. So things like the huge glass roof, the New York Taxi Commissioner was very keen on making sure that passengers could enjoy the New York skyline, for example. But there are lots of things, like the ability to recharge your cellphone. Convenience features like knee space. There is no transmission tunnel like on the Crown Vic so we have enhanced ease of access. Another big element is we also have special access for disabled people as well. Simple things like the sliding doors; apparently there are a ton of accidents in New York with the doors opening into traffic, or hitting pedestrians and cyclists. So a lot of thought went into the design o f the vehicle, there are some great stories there.

AutoTalk: Do you guys plan on trying to take that project, and the things that you learned from that, and create a niche market vehicle for people who may be disabled drivers and the like? Possibly put that out into the market?

Brian: We haven’t at the moment, no, but that is an interesting thought.

AutoTalk: Well, you are welcome, I guess.

Brian: Yeah, you should licence that. What we are doing is, we are approaching other cities. Boston, Chicago, and we are seeing if they are interested in having the same type of vehicle. London as well, so not just in the US.

AutoTalk: Thank you for taking the time to meet with me, I really appreciate it.

Brian: Of course, Thank you.

Andy Palmer is Executive Vice President and Executive Committee member at Nissan Motor Company Limited, with specific responsibilities for Nissan’s Corporate Planning, Product Planning and Program Management, Global Marketing Communications, Market Intelligence, Global IS/IT and Global Infiniti Business Unit.

For more information about Andy Palmer can be found here.

AutoTalk: Good afternoon, Sir. Thanks for taking the time to meet with me.

Andy: Please, don’t call me sir. I haven’t yet been knighted, and it is my pleasure.

AutoTalk: Let us get started then.

Andy: Let’s.

AutoTalk: The new JX is a very important vehicle for Infiniti. How did this vehicle come to be, and what market is being targeted?

Andy: Product planning is always looking at the white paper and all of the axis, and you look at what your customers are doing. Where the opportunities lie, where the competition is, and the trick with the product planning is to always look where there is the white space. In the case of Infiniti, the demographics of our brand are generally younger than the majority of mainstream luxury. That holds true in the US but it is also especially true outside the US. So often an Infiniti customer is in a life stage where they have a family. So kind of the natural conclusion is that rather than losing them from the brand, why not put something there that is very much a luxury family vehicle. Maybe their first entrance into the brand is a G, or perhaps in the future it will be the entry-level Infiniti from the Etherea Concpet. Then as they get kids and go through that life stage, they could move into the JX, and then you would expect them to move back into an FX or maybe an M depending on their life stage. SO it was basically that thought that steered the opportunity, and clearly for us it is completely incremental. We don’t have anything in that space today, there is no cannibalization, so it is purely conquest, and initial reaction is very very positive.

AutoTalk: In reference to Infiniti having younger buyers. Infiniti makes a dynamic and good-looking vehicle, whereas many of the older luxury marques stick to very staid and bland designs that, while handsome, are very safe.

Andy: I think you are going to see more of that. I took responsibility for Infiniti two and a half years ago. It has been 22 years in existence as a brand in the United States, and it has been through many many transformations. Some good, some bad, so you have a checkered history. When we decided to go outside the United States and make it a global brand, we needed to fix what we stand for. So inspired performance and hospitality is where we go. If I explain that, the inspired performance, it has to drive better than the rest. I’d guess you’d say the reference today in the luxury segment is probably BMW.  So BMW is usually the reference from an inspired performance point of view, but inspired performance needs something else, and we call it hospitality. Hospitality comes in many forms. BMW for example, by their own slogan says that their car is a machine.The natural, as the market leaders, the Germanic design is all machine-like. It’s all straight lines, it’s all beautifully executed, but if I was being controversial, I’d say soulless. You could look at the other Japanese competitors and you can say that they looked at the space and they followed suit, and in many cases they have created better cars. What we have done, is we said we want to be different.  We want curved lines. We want the cars to be seductive, sexy erotic. We want them to be humanistic. We want them to have this welcoming atmosphere. They also should be animal like and that by nature means the styling tends to be more fluid, more aggressive and in consequence, appeals to a younger customer.

AutoTalk: Being younger, I am a fan of Infiniti design. When I see a German make, I don’t feel drawn to it.

Andy: Wait until you see the next G. The next G, which is not that far away, I can’t tell you when it is, but it does define the characteristic of the brand. You can get hints of it by looking at the Essence and the Etherea, and I don’t know if you saw the Emerg-E that was shown in Geneva, but that is the design language we are talking about. You should see that flavor come out more and more as we introduce the cadence of new vehicles. That is what will define the brand. Then the point is that it’s Marmite, do you have Marmite in the US? Anyway, you either love it, or you hate it. It is supposed to be controversial. We ar not looking at the Mercedes-Benz customer, we are looking at a much younger audience, much sportier, and our intention is to catch the customer as the move up from the mass market and into the luxury, and bring them into the brand.

AutoTalk: We know that Infiniti is looking to bring in a smaller market segment item. Where would that be positioned, and is Infiniti looking to attack the market of the Volvo C30 or perhaps Acura’s new ILX?

Andy: Well the segment… actually I will be more specific, we are attacking BMW 1 and Audi A3. That’s globally where the mass is. Clearly it is the core of the market in Europe, but it is an emerging market around the world, but if you just do it is the same way what is compelling over an Audi A3? So the Etherea gives you some concept of where we are going with our play there. It is an interesting point because, as you know, we borrow many components and platform parts from Mercedes-Benz. So it comes with all the credibility of an A-class, B-Class architecture, but with a very different tune and a very very different style and feel.

AutoTalk: I know it makes sense from a costs-of-scale standpoint to move a lot of the technology Nissan has pioneered with the Leaf up into the Infiniti brand. How do you plan on marketing the new Infiniti LE against the market competitors? Seeing as there is not a true competitor for that type of vehicle, how well do you think it will do in the market?

Andy: There is not a competitor for that vehicle. It is clearly luxury. It is clearly more expensive than the Leaf. You could argue some internal competition because most of the buyers of the Leaf are something like 8o-percent conquest, and generally have a very high income. You could say their more normal choice could probably be an Infiniti. But you are right, today there really is not a competitor. The nearest competitor to us is probably BMW with their I-Series. Come back to the target customer of Infiniti, younger and with a much greater feeling of social responsibility, than probably their parents. As they have come through school there has been global warming, or fears of global warming, probably educated since your first days in infant school, and the car was the symbol of badness. So those guys are now coming to a position where they can afford to make a choice. And generally speaking, what I expect to happen, they probably already an M or and FX, and they will buy this in the first instance and a second car in the garage, a car for the school run or whatever. What will happen in reality, is that it will end up becoming the primary car for the family. The reality is that the greater American public doesn’t do about more than 25 or 30 miles a day, so from a practicality point of view this will become the primary car, and then they will use the FX or the M or the G as the car on the weekends when you want to go on longer distances. So that is where I generally see the dynamic. Now what you will see is that whilst that car borrows technology from Leaf, it is executed in a very very different way. Leaf is a hatchback, that’s (LE) a sedan.  By nature a hatchback has a high hip-point, stands high, and it makes it a really crap starting point for a sedan which is going to be low and sleek. So the challenge for the engineers and designers is to borrow what you can from the Leaf, but at the end of the day it needs to be a beautiful sedan. Then on top of that is what are the new technologies you want to embed. For example, people hate going to the gas station. Plugging in your car at the end of the day is a lot better than ever going to a gas station, but not having to plug in your car at all, just parking over an inductive charger, is even better.

AutoTalk: When it comes to inductive charging technology, do you see a time in the near future where we could embed that sort of technology into tires and roads so that when you are in a major city, or on a major roadway, that your car will stay perpetually charged.

Andy: It is definitely possible, you can do it in a laboratory. Is it going to happen very soon? I don’t think so. It means tearing up the road systems, and putting special lanes in place and all the rest of it. There are certainly some technological issues, you don’t get perpetual motion for sure, but quick charging…. What you see today is slow charging, you plug it in for eight hours or so, but quick charging is around the corner, relatively speaking, and definitely doable as long as regulation changes to allow you to do it. Continuous charging is the holy grail, and technically possible. What you’ll then get into is the debate about do I do fuel cell, or do I do embedded EV? Both require big investments in infrastructure, and its a bit of a race on that technology, frankly speaking, no matter which way you go, and we have bet on both.

AutoTalk: It has been wonderful, I really appreciate your time.

Andy: It has been my great pleasure.

“The purpose of the certification program is to provide the resources to help ensure consistency of the repair of Infiniti vehicles on a national basis,” said Carnie Colliver, senior manager for Parts and Service at Infiniti Americas.  The training course will take place under the supervision of I-CAR, DuPont and Infiniti.  Upon completion, a shop will receive a certification plague so customers can plainly see and know that their vehicle will be repaired to specification.  All certified facilities will also be connected via the repair network so that the use of OEM collision parts will take place. 

Source: Infiniti

“Imagine a superfast, near silent sports car, cruising the neon-lit streets of an after-dark London. This is the compelling image that gave birth to INFINITI EMERG-E, and this concept is its realization,” said Infiniti.  Designed entirely in Europe, the Emerg-E Concept holds numerous firsts for Nissan’s premium brand namesake.  Not only is it the first Infiniti developed outside of Japan and the U.S., it will also be their first mid engine vehicle.  Taking a cue from the hot rod Hybrids such as the M35h, the Emerg-E will be powered by a gasoline engine assisted by a high-torque battery pack.  Developed by Lotus, the ultra light 1.2 liter three cylinder puts out just 47 horsepower, but that isn’t what can get the car to 60 mph from a standstill in just four seconds.  What is responsible for that kind of acceleration is a pair of 201 horsepower EVO ELECTRIC motors which puts total output over the 400 mark.  Putting its power to the ground via a single speed transmission and the rear wheels, the 3,523 lb sports car will be doing 130 mph in just 3o seconds.  Impressive as its straight line performance may be, the Emerg-E will be able to do all of this while producing no more than 55g/km of C02 emissions.  Total combined driving range with the 1.2 liter “range extender” in play is expected to be about 300 miles.  Over 30 of those will be able to happen as a completely zero emissions vehicle.

Design wise, the Emerg-E takes a lot of aesthetic cues from the Essence and ETHEREA concepts and pushes the fluid brand vision even further.  The body lines were pieced together to give the appearance of being unbroken and it may look long, but its 175.7 inch length reveals it to be rather compact and strictly a two-seater sports car.  Putting futuristic flow together with old, organic muscle, the swooping fenders simply stop when they reach the flat but strong front and rear bumpers.  Short overhangs give plenty of room of technology inside while the bulbous cockpit draws attention to the vehicle’s main ”headquarters”.  The overall idea set by Infiniti was to show what silk wrapped over wheels would look like.  With the Emerg-E, they might have done just that.

Source: Infiniti

According the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the cars affected are 2003 through 2005 model years.  Official word on how many models could be at risk has yet to be released and or found.  Infiniti will contact owners on or around March 12 of this year and instruct them to have their Q45s inspected by a certified dealer.  The modification to the wiring connector will take place at no extra charge to drivers and Nissan encourages owners to contact them directly for more information.

Source: NHTSA

So far, approximately 79,275 vehicles are being recalled.  The Jukes in question are both 2011 and 2012 model years while the Infiniti QX and M models affected are 2011 and 2012s as well.  According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Nissan North America is expected to begin notifying owners on March 19 of this year.  To remedy the issue, certified dealers will inspect the fuel pressure sensor’s torque specs and if necessary, replace the entire unit at no extra cost to drivers.

Source: NHTSA

Final assembly isn’t the only Tennessee product to be found on the JX.  The Dechard Engine Plant will be the home of the 3.5 liter VQ35 V6 that powers all or the front wheels of the Infiniti.  With a competitive $40,450 base price, 21 mpg in mixed driving, 265 horsepower and fluid but cutting design work, the latest luxury Nissan should make a splash in the highly crowded third row premium segment.  Innovative features such as the world’s first Back Up Collision Intervention system that will control the brakes if a crash from the rear looks possible.  “The luxury crossover market is the fastest growing luxury segment in America, representing a huge opportunity for Infiniti,” said Infiniti Americas Vice President Ben Poore. “In fact, we expect JX to quickly become our second highest volume model, right behind the popular Infiniti G-line.”

Source: Infiniti

“I am delighted to welcome Visscher BV into the Infiniti family,” said Infiniti Europe and Middle East Vice President, Bernard Loire. Across the next 18 months, Nissan plans to open two all-new Dutch Infiniti sites with the help of Visscher.  The full European line-up will be represented, including the newly released M35h Hybrid.  And as Infiniti expands it vehicle range, the Netherlands market will grow with it.  Next on the list is the compact car based around the ETHERA concept.  “They (Visscher) have demonstrated that they share with us a commitment to providing Dutch customers with welcoming hospitality and attentive client care which are both core to the Infiniti brand.”

Source: Infiniti