The Japanese car brand Infiniti, owned by the Nissan concern, announced its withdrawal from the Russian market.
“We will continue to provide service support to all owners of our vehicles under the terms of the warranty,” the company said.
Russia has become the first European market for Infiniti, the brand has been represented in the country since 2006. Before the beginning of the year, cars of the SUV segment of the QX50, QX55 and QX80 models were imported to the local market.
In recent years, the brand has not had a local production. In 2012-2014, a SKD assembly of the QX70, QX80 crossovers and the M sedan was carried out at the Nissan plant in St. Petersburg. Deliveries of Infiniti cars to the Russian market were stopped in early March after the start of a military operation on the territory of Ukraine.
According to the Association of European Businesses (AEB), Infiniti sales in Russia for 9 months of 2022 fell by 46%, to 819 units. The market share decreased to 0.1% from 0.2% a year earlier.
The Japanese auto concern Nissan, which owns the Infiniti brand, had previously decided to transfer its Russian production site in St. Petersburg (Nissan Manufacturing Rus LLC) for a symbolic cost to the Russian Federal State Unitary Enterprise NAMI with a buyback option within 6 years. The perimeter of the transaction also included the production and research facilities of the concern in St. Petersburg, a sales and marketing center in Moscow.
The plant of the Japanese company in St. Petersburg opened in June 2009. The volume of investments in the first place amounted to $200 million, in expansion – 167 million euros. The company produced X-Trail, Murano, Qashqai and Terrano models. Its capacity is 100 thousand cars per year.
