Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn has set a target of winning at least 8 percent of the luxury segment in China by 2016. Infiniti has 2 percent now. Market leader Audi has 34 percent while Lexus has 8 percent, according to industry researcher J.D. Power & Associates.

Infiniti will double the number of its dealerships this year, add five product lines over the next five years, and air its first TV commercials in a nation where primetime audiences can exceed 500 million.

The Yokohama, Japan-based company is also considering production in China to eliminate tariffs of 25 percent on imported cars.

"We entered the China market even later than Taiwan and South Korea, and that's very ridiculous to anybody who has a bit of knowledge about the industry," said Allen Lu, who left Ferrari SpA to become managing director of Infiniti's China unit last year. "But, it's like running a marathon -- you can't tell who will win after just 10 kilometers."

Nissan, Japan's second-largest automaker, aims to triple worldwide Infiniti sales to 500,000 a year by 2017, taking about 10 percent of the global luxury-car market. China became Infiniti's second-biggest market after the U.S. last year, according to Lu. The brand isn't sold in Japan.

'Good momentum'
"We have a good momentum in China and we should continue," Ghosn said on July 26 in Beijing, where Nissan unveiled its mid-term China business plan.

Infiniti trails Audi, Munich-based BMW AG and Mercedes-Benz in China. BMW has a 22 percent share of the luxury-car market and Stuttgart-based Mercedes has 14 percent, according to J.D. Power.

Infiniti's China sales were 11,513 last year, doubling from the year before, though still only 5 percent of Audi's. Lexus sales rose more than 55 percent to 52,933 units in 2010, according to Toyota, Japan's largest automaker.

Audi also ranked first in a new-vehicle sales satisfaction survey released Aug. 15 by J.D. Power. Nissan's Chinese joint venture, Dongfeng Motor Co., finished second. The survey was based on responses from 11,496 owners and covered 57 passenger-vehicle brands.

'Real Challenge'
"The real challenge for Infiniti is to get on the consideration list for luxury-auto shoppers in China," said Bill Russo, a senior adviser at consulting company Booz & Co. in Beijing.

China has more than 1.1 million millionaires and an economy that expanded at 9.5 percent in the second quarter, so "it should be possible for Infiniti to carve out a piece of this expanding pie," he said.

Toyota declined to comment on the challenge posed by Infiniti, saying in an e-mail that "we respect all competitors."

Honda Motor Co., Japan's third-largest automaker, is preparing several new Acura luxury models for the U.S. and Chinese markets, Chief Financial Officer Fumihiko Ike said in June.

Late Start
Infiniti got a late start in China, entering the market in 2007, about three years after Lexus opened its first dealerships there and more than a decade after Audi began local production.

The two Japanese luxury units don't have plants in China, which means customers pay import duties that boost prices.

The Infiniti M25 sedan starts at 498,000 yuan ($78,000) and a Lexus ES350 costs from 545,000 yuan, according to pricing data compiled by Sina.com. That compares with 355,000 yuan for an
Audi A6 and 418,600 yuan for a BMW 5-series, both of which are assembled in China.

"Brand loyalty in China is not strong," Lu said. "Everyone in China made their wealth in the past 20 or 30 years, and when people have all this money and don't know where to spend it, that's a great opportunity."

Local Production
The success of Infiniti may depend on manufacturing vehicles in China, said Klaus Paur, Shanghai-based managing director for Greater China at Synovate Motoresearch.

Audi, Mercedes and BMW all produce cars in China; Infiniti does not.

"The visibility of Infiniti-branded cars has to be increased," Paur said. "This requires higher volumes that can only be achieved with local production."

In June, Ghosn said Nissan would build Infiniti cars in either the U.S. or China. Ghosn and Lu declined during separate interviews last month to comment on whether Infinitis will be made in China.

The Beijing News and several other Chinese media outlets recently reported that Infiniti would start building vehicles in the east China city of Hangzhou in 2015.

On Monday, Infiniti's China office issued a statement denying media reports that it planned to produce vehicles in China.

Nissan's Dongfeng joint venture has announced plans to invest 50 billion yuan by 2015 to raise annual auto sales to 2.3 million units, up from 1.3 million units.

Infiniti has stepped up its marketing in China, airing its first TV commercial last September and participating in more than 50 local auto shows, Lu said. Sebastian Vettel, the Formula One champion, drove a 5.0-liter V8 Infiniti FX50 and a 3.7-liter V6 Infiniti G37 around a test track in Shanghai in April as part of Infiniti's sponsorship deal with the Red Bull team.

The number of Infiniti dealers will double to 50 this year, with a five-year target of 150 covering all major cities, according to the company. Five new product lines will augment the current QX, FX, EX, M and G-series vehicles, and department heads drive Infiniti cars to meetings instead of other brands.

"You eat your rice mouthful by mouthful," Lu said. "We're going to take it step by step."