Nearly all brands have now come up with at least one electric vehicle in their lineup. There is no guarantee that the future is electric; however, manufacturers are trying to get to know this new technology better just in case vehicles of the future do end up as EVs. Infiniti, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to pay attention to modern car trends. As you may be aware, Infiniti is a brand that has been silent lately. With a lineup mostly composed of old models, the company has sort of begun a downhill slumber towards failure which is only being exaggerated by its lack of electric vehicle efforts. Infiniti is one of the very few mainstream brands that hasn’t come up with an electric vehicle yet. If the company wants to survive in the upcoming years, some drastic measures will need to be taken.

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A Brief History Overview Of Infiniti As A Company

Red Infiniti Q50
Infiniti
A front three-quarter shot of the Infiniti Q50

If you are from North America, there is a good chance you know of Infiniti, if you aren’t, then there is a good chance you don’t. Infiniti is basically Nissan’s luxury sub-brand. Kind of like what Lexus is to Toyota. It was launched in the 1990s with the aim to give European luxury brands a Japanese brand to fight against. In the beginning, things were looking great. Infiniti's lineup was expanding with interesting models. In fact, this was one of the first brands to ever sell a luxury SUV. The pinnacle of Infiniti came in the mid-2000s with the release of the G35. The G35 was a sports sedan that managed to dethrone the BMW 3 Series which at the time was the gold standard. It was so good, that it received several car-of-the-year awards. Infiniti was on such a good trajectory that it started to expand in Europe and even Australia. Millions of dollars were poured into brand image campaigns and the company even sponsored an F1 racing time for several years.

So, everything was looking good until it wasn’t. Through several mistakes over the years, the company started to decline which led to the ending of their F1 sponsorship and even a pull-out from the European and Australian markets. Nowadays, Infiniti cars are either bought by rental car companies or by people who simply look for a bargain. Infiniti vehicles are cheaper than their competition which is the only reason private buyers buy them. This, however, is a tough situation for a company to be in as profits are much lower.

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The Cars Currently Offered By Infiniti

Red Infiniti Q50
Infiniti
A rear-three quarter shot of the Infiniti Q50

The current Infiniti lineup includes the QX80, QX60, QX50, QX55, Q50, and Q50. The QX models are SUVs and the rest are sedans. The problem here is that most of these vehicles are extremely outdated which is one of the main reasons Infinity is failing as a brand. To go from a promising luxury brand to one that is failing requires incredibly wrong moves and this is one of them. For example, the QX80 is based on the current generation Nissan Patrol which has been out for 10 years now. In a luxury market filled with autonomous vehicles with a lot of power, great handling, amazing interiors, and futuristic looks there is no space for an old behemoth like the GX80. This is mostly the same case for the rest of Infiniti's vehicles.

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The Company Appears To Have Some Electrification Plans

Infiniti QX EV Concept
Infiniti 
A top-down shot of the Infiniti QX EV Concept 

Nissan is planning on investing $500 million to transform its Canton assembly plant to build the all-new Nissan and Infiniti EV models starting in 2025. As you can imagine, building electric vehicles isn’t just a matter of designing them and making them. Different assembly lines are needed. Also, worker training is needed to handle the mechanical differences of electric cars. Nissan’s investment supports retraining and upskilling nearly 2,000 jobs which will transform the Canton plant into an EV factory. Nissan aims to have 40-percent of its new vehicle lineup electrified by 2030. This movement will begin in 2025, but will Infiniti survive until then? Well, only time can tell. Worth mentioning is the fact that we did receive some electric Infiniti concepts, but the brand hasn’t provided any real information about them yet. Also, the automaker has a strong history of presenting exciting concepts without actually making them into production cars.

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Infiniti Vehicles Will No Longer Sit On Unique Platforms

Infiniti QX-80
Infiniti
A side shot of the Infiniti QX-80

So far, some Infiniti vehicles have had their own unique platforms in the sense that they weren’t based on Nissan vehicles. However, Nissan seems to be aiming for a change. It appears that Infiniti will solely be an upscale Nissan brand. Both vehicles will be built on the same assembly lines right next to each other. Their differences will pretty much be a better interior and different styling for the Infinities. We might also get some more powerful drivetrains that will help differentiate the two brands a bit more. This isn’t a bad idea. In fact, it is a pretty good one as Toyota and Honda are both doing this already. For example, the Toyota Land Cruiser was for many years the same vehicle as the Lexus LX. This is also the case for other Toyota and Lexus sedans. Let’s hope that Nissan undertakes new measurements regarding Infinity, but also the Nissan line up in general which also has some dated models. The automotive market is more competitive than ever, and subpar and outdated vehicles longer get the sales job done.