Infiniti Learns a Bit of German Tannen Maury/European Pressphoto Agency Infiniti's president, Johan de Nysschen, right, with Shiro Nakamura, the chief creative officer for Nissan Motor, at the 2013 Detroit auto show. Since he was hired in mid-2012, Johan de Nysschen, the president of Infiniti, has been leading a comprehensive remaking of Nissan's luxury brand. A largely non-Japanese management team has been brought in, featuring some key executives snatched from German automakers. These include Michael Bartsch, from Porsche, who is now vice president of Infiniti Americas; Mr. de Nysschen himself arrived after serving as president of Audi of America. Infiniti's headquarters has moved to Hong Kong from Japan; on Oct. 2, the Infiniti brand became an autonomous subsidiary of Nissan. Plans are well underway to create an entirely new lineup of vehicles; to expand production to North America, Britain and China; and to expand on strategic agreements with Daimler to jointly develop vehicle platforms and powertrains. Infiniti will even share an engine and a platform with Mercedes: The Q50 will eventually get a turbocharged Mercedes 4-cylinder, and a Q30 compact car, currently in development, is based on the new Benz A-Class. With Infiniti aiming to develop a business model more in line with the ones German automakers have successfully executed, Mr. Bartsch was asked if something of a "Germanification" of Infiniti was underway. "Infiniti is now free to pursue a separate business model," Mr. Bartsch said in an interview at the Los Angeles Auto Show last month. The business model we are pursuing is more closely aligned with the premium luxury segment. The people who do that best are the Germans. Henner Lehne, an analyst for IHS Global, said in a recent email: "Fact is, that the three key global premium players in this segment are German, and therefore they are the main orientation point for Infiniti. If they want to grow in the premium segment successfully they need to closely watch what the Germans are doing and maybe adopt here and there certain behaviors. But expect Infiniti to pursue exclusivity rather than the sales volume approach taken by the German juggernauts of BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen Group. Mr. de Nysschen, a native of South Africa, says he thinks he can use the Germans" strengths - their sales growth and expansion into more and more vehicle segments - against them. "We do not strive to be the biggest," Mr. de Nysschen said in an email last week. We strive to be a highly regarded aspirational brand, which is the domain of those who seek a different expression of their personal station in life, than that communicated by the mainstream premium brands. He added, "In effect, the definition of exclusivity has come the full circle, back to the original meaning - namely, for the select few, not for everyone." Mr. Bartsch said Infiniti would not be among the industry's so-called "fast followers" who ape the products of the pacesetters. He expects authenticity to be a guiding principle in Infiniti's engineering and design. "You have to stand for something," he said. You need differentiators. As recently as three years ago, Infiniti was still trying to be all things to all people. That was the brand's Achilles" heel." Indeed, while Toyota's Lexus division, which is essentially the same age as Infiniti, has followed a similar path, it has been relatively more successful at it. Mr. de Nysschen likes to make a comparison among high-end watches - the large Swiss brands Breguet, Chopard, Patek Philippe and so forth - with IWC, a bit of an outlier in that industry. "IWC also makes very nice, very luxurious, but also somewhat different watches, for a smaller, more defined audience than some of the larger luxury watchmakers," he said. Why can't Infiniti find a niche like that in the premium car market? Mr. de Nysschen also rejects the volume-oriented thinking that permeated past product plans, which some have derided as "Nissan-plus" - neither exclusive nor luxurious enough. He has tossed out sales goals of hundreds of thousands of units in favor of building far fewer vehicles, but ones with more substance. "From that, ultimately, comes volume," he said. But it may take up to 15 years, he added, to realize his ultimate goals for Infiniti. Mr. Lehne, the auto analyst, sees an element of danger in that strategy. "In the end, Infiniti has to watch out," he said, "since the German three are also having strong ambitions and are battling between themselves very hard these days. If Infiniti cannot bring the right product to the right place in time, they might go under in that race for global premium leadership.