Infiniti Sales Data & Trends for the European Automotive Market
Infiniti European sales have remained marginal, even compared to Lexus, who have been trying to crack the European premium market for decades with not much success. This is the territory of the German Big Three Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, who don’t leave a lot of room for players outside the continent. At least Infiniti can say they have outsold Cadillac every year since 2009.
Before its official launch in Europe, Infiniti’s best selling model by grey importers was traditionally the FX large SUV, renamed QX70 in 2013, with its striking design. The EX SUV, renamed QX50 and the Infiniti M sedan, renamed Q70, are much less successful, despite diesel and hybrid powertrain options for the Q70.
The Infiniti G, the brand’s best selling model in the United States, has been unable to compete against the BMW 3-series, Mercedes-Benz C-class and Audi A4 in Europe. The introduction of the new generation, renamed Q50, at the end of 2013 has given the brand a boost as it topped 3.000 units in 2015. This is a good looking, great driving sedan, and also available with a diesel engine (supplied by Mercedes-Benz) and a hybrid powertrain, which make it more successful than the previous generation. But if it will be successful enough in the long term to establish Infiniti as a serious contender in the European premium automobile market? That is a totally different ballgame, on at which many have failed before.
But the brand is dedicated to the continent, and in 2016 it introduced a compact premium hatchback to compete with the Audi A3, Mercedes-Benz A-Class and BMW 1-series, called the Q30 which was followed by a luxury compact crossover to compete with the BMW X1, Audi Q3 and Mercedes-Benz GLA, on which platform it is based. Both the Q30 and this QX30 (which are basically the same car, but with different ground clearance) are produced in the UK, in Nissan’s factory where the successful Qashqai is built. Although they’ve taken the brand to unprecedented levels, especially the crossover version is failing horribly. After more than doubling Infiniti sales in 2016, volume stabilized in 2017 and started to collapse in 2018. The next few years will be crucial to see if the brand can break through as it continues to bring fresh products, starting with the Q60 coupe, which is more of an image builder than a volume model, and the redesigned QX50.
A full electric car, based on the Nissan Leaf, had been planned but was postponed as Infiniti wants to dedicate its limited resources to first develop high-volume mainstream models.
Also find Infiniti US sales figures and Infiniti China sales figures. Sales figures for the Infiniti Q30, Q50, Q60, Q70, QX30, QX50, QX70 and any other car model sold in Europe since the early 2000’s.
Monthly Vehicle Sales
Annual Vehicle Sales
Annual Vehicle Sales Chart
Market Share Chart
Car sales statistics are from the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.
Sources: Manufacturers, ANDC, JATO Dynamics.