Dongfeng Infiniti boasts high hopes for China with the domestic production of the Q50L

Gasgoo.com (Shanghai November 11) - Earlier this month, Dongfeng Infiniti's first domestically manufactured vehicle, the Q50L, rolled off the assembly lines at Dongfeng Nissan's factory in Xiangyang, Hubei. Infiniti hopes that the new domestic production plans will help drive Infiniti to its goal of reaching the fourth place position in the Chinese luxury automobile market.

In 2012 Dongfeng Motor and Infiniti signed an agreement to produce the Q50L (pictured) in Xiangyang. In just two short years, the deal finally came to fruition. While the pace with which the domestically made Infiniti came into production is astounding, the fact of the matter is the manufacturer is still lagging far behind its rivals in the luxury manufacturer.

Dongfeng Nissan is working as Dongfeng Infiniti's strategic partner in the country. Dongfeng Nissan will be responsible for helping with Infiniti's research and development, purchasing, manufacturing and other activities on the manufacturing side of things, while Dongfeng Infiniti itself will work in marketing and sales work.

Ren Yong, deputy general manager of Dongfeng Nissan and board chairman of Dongfeng Infiniti, used the expression 'one family' to definite the relationship between the two joint ventures. The fact that Dongfeng Infiniti is a subsidiary of Dongfeng Nissan, he explains, is to better help promote the rapid development of the Infiniti brand in China.

In order to prepare for this upsurge in demand, Dongfeng Nissan has invested a preliminary amount of 600 million RMB ($97.77m) in the Xiangyang production site. The total investment value at the site is expected to reach 3 billion RMB ($488.84m). Mr. Ren explained that the site is designed to keep up with customer demand and ensure the quality of Infiniti branded products.

A total of 20,787 Infinitis have been sold in China over the first three quarters of the year, representing astounding year-on-year growth of 91 percent. According to its strategy, Infiniti aims to sell 100,000 vehicles in the country in 2018. However, no specific sales targets have been set for the Dongfeng Infiniti joint venture as of yet.