You’d be forgiven for not noticing, but Europe has recently taken delivery of a shiny new automotive brand and luxury car line. The brand is Japanese carmaker Nissan’s luxury arm Infiniti; the car, which officially hits the road in September, is the M. Infiniti Europe marketing director Bastien Schupp says that scaling the European market would be the crowning achievement of the brand, whose logo depicts that great symbol of Japan, Mount Fuji. However, as 80% of Europe’s luxury car drivers now opt for the Teutonic trio of BMW, Audi and Mercedes, Schupp acknowledges that he faces a marketing challenge akin to climbing Everest without oxygen. The basic problem, notes David Rubin, auto analyst at Swiss bank Pictet & Cie, is that when mulling a potential €50,000 purchase, “Europeans want precisely what Infiniti doesn’t have: history and credibility”.

Infiniti’s timing also seems to suck. Despite being around since 1989 and shifting 130,000 vehicles in 2009, largely in the US, the company’s European rollout actually cranked up in September 2008 – the very month that the global economy, not to mention pretty much the entire auto sector, went into meltdown. Since then, Ford and GM have given up on luxury, offloading Aston Martin and Saab respectively, both brands withestablished pedigrees. Overtaken by crossover vehicles, cut up by SUVs and blocked by people carriers, it’s no surprise that, as a percentage of the total vehicles sold in Europe, the E-segment – the fifth car-size category – has shrunk from 5.2% in 2000 to 2.8% last year. While in part due to the recession, the market share of these luxury sedans had already fallen by a fifth by 2007 – the height of the boom – and Global Insight predicts that sales will never recover, projecting a 3.6% market share in 2013, just shy of 16 million vehicles.

Nevertheless, Schupp believes that in 2010–11, Infiniti can double the 2,500 sales of SUVs and sedans it has so far achieved through the 35 dealerships it has across 16 European markets. His optimism stems from a new diesel engine, deemed by most analysts to be crucial in Europe where fuel economy is more of an issue, plus the launch of the M. Indeed, Infiniti’s European aspirations were behind the decision to lavish the M with a wealth of enhancements including enough active speakers to create a noise-cancelling cocoon, a filtration and ion exchange in the air conditioning to waft “forest air”, and the embedding of every Michelin-starred restaurant in the satnav.

Although, Infiniti hopes to dazzle BMW, Audi and Mercedes drivers with its extras, Schupp says its marketing budget is a fraction of its rivals. Consequently, the company has to be more creative than Japanese car brands have traditionally been. The Infiniti ‘brand experience’ means free pick-up and delivery for servicing within 250km of a dealership, customer satisfaction managers “handpicked” from the five-star hospitality industry and dealerships shielded by frosted glass and evoking the hushed calm of an art gallery. Potential customers also receive a loyalty-boosting glossy magazine called Adeyaka –“which stands for luxury, distinction, elegance and a special way of life”.

Infiniti has only five years, however, for this special way of life to be converted into a profitable business, the length of time that Nissan has committed to subsidise the dealerships, according to Schupp. Until then, every car sold into Europe will likely be a loss leader – a big gamble considering that vehicle sales slumped by more than 30% in the US last year. Ironically, the only real sign of growth is at the very top of Infiniti’s range, where its gas-guzzling FX SUV has, claims global vice president Toru Saito, won over some Porsche Cayenne drivers.

Unsurprisingly, many analysts doubt Infiniti’s ability to ever break even in Europe. Take Lexus, Toyota’s equivalent luxury division. Twice as large as Infiniti in production, and a huge success in the US, Lexus’ 1990 European rollout was supported by a colossal promotional campaign. Following the introduction of a diesel engine, Lexus’s total sales in Europe increased 72% in 2006 to more than 50,000 vehicles, yet this figure nosedived to just 20,500 last year after aggressive price competition from Mercedes and BMW. Outside the UK and Swiss markets, says Rubin, “the brand has struggled to win acceptance”.

By biding its time for two decades, Infiniti may have simply fallen hopelessly behind. Julien Schmidt, a lecturer for marketing and retailing at Loughborough University business school, says that Infiniti’s six-cylinder diesel engine is not a match for the equivalent BMW engines for fuel economy and emissions, deal breakers in the many Euro markets where tax and emissions go hand in hand. That leaves a lot riding on the hybrid version of the M, which arrives in 2011, by which time most competitors will already have advanced hybrid technologies on the road.

At press time there were no reports yet on the M’s driving characteristics, although the reception at March’s Geneva motor show was a repeat of the one that met the Lexus, with many accusing the car of being handsome but derivative, and nowhere near as crisp as the concept vehicle that Infiniti displayed a year ago.

“I suspect a lot of it is simply to do with Toyota and Lexus and a feeling that as a Japanese producer there is a need to be seen to be competing across the whole range,” says Professor Jim Saker, director of Loughborough University’s Centre for Automotive Management. In other words, despite Carlos Ghosn’s reputation for ruthless ringing of synergies as head of the Renault-Nissan global alliance, Infiniti appears to be playing a familiar game of old-fashioned automotive rivalry.

Rubin is also sceptical of the brand’s chances, except as a minor, heavily subsidised division of Nissan. “Had Infiniti been launched in Europe in the 1980s, it might have been successful, but in 2010, in this class, as a newcomer it’s almost impossible to succeed.”