Nissan is considering introducing its US-only Infiniti luxury brand to Europe and Japan as part of its forthcoming three-year plan.
Carlos Ghosn, chief executive of the Japanese carmaker controlled by France's Renault, said the expansion of the luxury marque outside the US could be included in the successor to the "Nissan 180" turnround plan due to finish in April 2005.
The move follows the decision by Toyota this year to rebrand its luxury models in Japan under the Lexus badge it already uses in the US and Europe.
Nissan executives have already begun discussing the targets for the new three-year plan, which will be unveiled in April. "Post-Nissan 180 may very well incorporate Infiniti going outside the US," Mr Ghosn said.
Other executives said Europe and Japan were both being discussed as possible destinations for the upmarket brand. The company had previously said it would only launch in Europe once it had access to a large diesel engine, likely to come from Renault.
Mr Ghosn said the next business plan would continue to "give visibility" to the dividend, after the company set out its plans to triple pay-outs by the end of the current plan.
"It's not going to be a philosophical plan," he said. "You are going to have critical objectives. They are going to be measurable and you are going to be able to see exactly what is going on. It will be no surprise that products will be at the heart of it."
Two of the three targets of the 180 plan have already been met, with operating margins well above the 8 per cent goal and net automotive debt paid off under the original definition.
Sales have also been increasing in line with the aim of selling an extra 1m cars and light trucks globally, an increase of almost 40 per cent on the 2.6m units sold in the year to March 2002.
Norio Matsumura, head of sales, said the fierce price war in the US car and truck market would not knock the group off course or prompt it to increase its discounts, currently standing at about $1,200 - less than a third of what US domestic manufacturers offer.
"Without doing artificial sales we will be able to reach this sales increase," he said.
The expansion of Infiniti outside its home base in the US would have been unthinkable a few years ago, when it was struggling in the shadow of Lexus. But sales in the past two years have grown dramatically and 40 per cent more vehicles were sold under the brand in the six months to September than the same period last year.
"The first years of Infiniti were not very successful," Mr Ghosn said, but he added that this year and the next "are going to be great years" for the brand.
- Financial Times