Nissan to produce Infiniti cars in China next year, report says
Nissan Motor Co. will start building its Infiniti-brand luxury cars in China in 2012 to meet the Chinese market's strong demand for luxury vehicles, Japan's Nikkei newspaper reported.
The first Infiniti sedan will be produced at a plant owned by Nissan's joint venture with China's Dongfeng Motor Corp. in central China's Hubei province, according to Nikkei.
The move will make Nissan the first Japanese automaker to localize production of luxury vehicles in China.
Nissan exported 7,383 Infiniti vehicles to China from Japan in the first nine months of this year, up 11 percent from the same period last year.
The Japanese automaker has localized the production of all its Nissan-badged vehicles. It sold 605,877 Nissan-brand vehicles in the first three quarters, rising 18 percent year-on-year.
That has made Nissan the fourth largest global automaker in China, behind Volkswagen AG, General Motors and Hyundai Group.
At present, only three German luxury car brands -- Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz -- have localized production in China.
