00:00Infiniti is looking to make a comeback in the U.S., betting on American manufacturing.
00:04The company unveiling a new luxury SUV built in Tennessee as it pushes into one of its most competitive segments
00:10in the market.
00:11Joining us now is Eric Ledoux, vice president of Infiniti Americas.
00:14I was actually just thinking about how perfect it was that you unveiled this in Vanderbilt Hall in Grand Central
00:19for a car made in Tennessee.
00:21Was that a coincidence?
00:22It was actually a total coincidence, but what a great setting.
00:25We're kind of all still floating on the buzz from the unveiling of the all-new Infiniti QX65, our midsize
00:32SUV, and really looking forward to what it's going to do for the company.
00:35So one of the notable things about this car, as I mentioned, is that it's going to be manufactured in
00:40the U.S.
00:41Why was there that decision?
00:43How much did it have to do with trying to insulate from tariffs and continued supply chain strains we're now
00:48seeing with an additional war in the picture?
00:51Yeah, so we're always mindful of where we're sourcing our products and our vehicles.
00:55And in this case, as you can imagine, as an auto company, we do a lot of platform sharing when
01:00we develop vehicles.
01:01This vehicle shares a platform with other products in the lineup.
01:04And so it made all the sense in the world that we'd be able to build this vehicle in Smyrna,
01:10Tennessee, right down the road from our Americas headquarters.
01:12How much is the supply chain localized?
01:14To what degree are you still exposed to tariffs?
01:16You know, everyone's exposed to tariffs in the auto industry, right?
01:20And we're not immune to that.
01:21We build vehicles all over the world.
01:23For Infiniti, we build now two of our three vehicles here in the United States.
01:27So it makes us very nimble.
01:29We can adjust the market demands.
01:31We can distribute to the East Coast, to the West Coast, to the South.
01:34It makes us extremely nimble when it comes to launching new products.
01:38And in this case, building a brand new product on the same line that another product our midsize SUV QX60
01:44is built on.
01:45And something like this, like a two-row – I'm going to do my best Matt Miller here – a
01:49two-row luxury SUV kind of feels like the heart of this luxury market.
01:54How important is this car, is the QX65, and sort of reviving the Infiniti brand, especially here in America?
02:01Yeah.
02:01Great question, and Matt would be proud, right?
02:04At the end of the day, this is the heart of the market, right?
02:07Midsize, five-seat SUV is the heart of the luxury market.
02:11It's by far the biggest segment in the luxury market.
02:14And our new Infiniti QX65 delivers on so many things that those clients are looking for.
02:20And so, yeah, we're thrilled to be able to bring that.
02:22And not only that, to your point on helping the comeback of Infiniti, this is where volume will play for
02:28us.
02:28This will also help Infiniti be a big part of Nissan's future.
02:33What does kind of the post-mortem soul-searching look like?
02:36Because my first car was an Infiniti.
02:38It was my dad's old Infiniti that my sister, if she's listening, totaled, which I'm still upset about to this
02:44day.
02:44But back then, I would also see more Infiniti's on the road, too.
02:47Now I don't see as many, and that is reflected in the numbers, too.
02:50What changed, and what do you have to do to revive the popularity of the brand?
02:56You know, for Infiniti, it's all about being where the customer is.
02:59And this Infiniti QX65, like I said, is right in the heart of the market for us.
03:04And we will have one new vehicle to launch for every year for the foreseeable future.
03:10So we are investing in the future today.
03:12It's very exciting to be right here in New York unveiling this new product,
03:16but also bringing it to the New York Auto Show next week for the journalists to really get in and
03:22see it up close and personal.
03:23There is this strange irony of the times where EVs were not very popular.
03:28A lot of companies struggled with their products, pulling back, changing their investment strategy.
03:32And now as the price of oil goes higher, there's this moment of maybe we're going to have a rethink.
03:37Maybe hybrids and EVs will be the way to go.
03:40Have you thought about getting more of your SUV models into that?
03:44Because at the moment, I know that's not part of the offering.
03:46Yeah, we absolutely are.
03:47First of all, we're always studying what the consumer is wanting and doing and the economic equation to that.
03:52And I think there's EV and there's electrification.
03:54And there's a lot of different ways to offer electrification and diverse powertrains to our consumers.
03:59Yeah, so we're studying that.
04:00And it would be very reasonable to expect a hybrid electric vehicle in our lineup soon.
04:06Is it difficult from being at a starting place that you don't already have one?
04:10How strenuous is it to get that to the market at the moment if you wanted to?
04:14Yeah, no, actually, we've been working on that for a while now.
04:17So not strenuous at all.
04:19The beautiful part of the Infiniti brand is it's part of a multinational auto company where we have development technologies
04:26from all over the world.
04:27So we are working with our team and our product team and our engineers to develop a hybrid system that
04:33will be very, very appropriate for the luxury market.
04:36How is luxury market demand?
04:39Because there's such a big conversation right now of consumers are dealing with interest rates that aren't coming down, which
04:43obviously impacts financing for vehicles.
04:46Now it's higher oil prices, too.
04:48So they're going to have to pay more at the pump when they do buy a car.
04:51Have you seen in recent weeks or even maybe this year any change in behavior from consumers and what they
04:56want?
04:56Yeah, great question.
04:57So on a macroeconomic scale, we actually see the market pretty much flat year over year.
05:02So this year has been off to a good start.
05:04Last year was a very solid year with the industry volume a little bit over 16 million units.
05:09And when it comes to this year, we're poised to ramp up here with an all-new product.
05:15We just finished an all-time, anytime record for our QX80, our full-size SUV, last year.
05:24We've been hitting some market share notes here in the last couple of months.
05:27There are records as well over the last few years.
05:30So the momentum is real for us.
05:32So we see the market being there.
05:34The timing couldn't be better to be bringing a vehicle like this to the heart of the market.
05:38So there haven't been any slowdowns.
05:39Do you think that's because you're poised in the luxury part of the market?
05:42Is that on purpose with an SUV with people who are more likely to be insulated and want to spend
05:47the money on it?
05:48Yeah, I think our clients who want to reward themselves for their accomplishments in life
05:53and surround themselves with amazing materials, technologies, a luxurious ride,
05:59I mean, this vehicle delivers in spades.
06:01And I think that speaks to luxury in general, where that consumer wants what they want.
06:05And so far, we're seeing a really good, healthy market for that.
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