AFAIK, this is the original source that the article you cited above butchered:="RonDawg"
....Per the article below, the Infiniti LE is "on hold indefinitely." It quotes Infiniti CEO Johan de Nysschen.
http://www.myelectriccarforums.com/infi ... efinitely/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Publicly stated reason:
Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Goshn recently announced a goal to boost Infiniti annual sales from 170,000 vehicles to 500,000 units by the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017. Infiniti CEO Johan de Nysschen doesn’t believe the goal is attainable, especially if Infiniti focuses on launching the electric LE vehicles.
http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a ... z2V9oIk0uM" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
..."There will be an Infiniti EV. The question is one of timing," de Nysschen said. "We have a whole host of product priorities. We have to make very substantial investments now, and it's important that we expand our volume footprint quite quickly."
At the 2012 New York auto show, Infiniti unveiled a five-passenger LE concept electric sedan. Then in December 2012, the brand said it would launch an all-electric Infiniti -- the brand's counterpart to the Nissan Leaf -- in 2014. De Nysschen says that's on hold now.
"There has been no formal decision yet within the company to give the project the green light and let them start with investment," de Nysschen said of the EV. "In my evaluation of our business strategy, I introduced a whole bunch of additional considerations."
Ghosn's EV ambitions pose a challenge for Infiniti. Ghosn has said he hopes to sell 1.5 million EVs across the range of Nissan, Infiniti and Renault by 2016. The company has spent billions of dollars toward that goal. But cumulative sales so far are short of 100,000 units.
A cautious de Nysschen is balancing an Infiniti EV project against resources needed by other products, such as a halo car.
He said it is "quite an easy decision" to prioritize a product that will cultivate "brand positioning" and "expand our market footprint" over a car that has "perceived progressive technology but is not helping to expand the volume base."
"We had so many priorities," he said. The proposed Infiniti EV "was one where I said, 'Look, I need a little more time.'"
The outlook for EVs is clouded by the lack of a charging infrastructure, uncertainty about future government incentives and questions about where China stands on the technology, de Nysschen said. Rapid technological advancements in batteries also risk making an Infiniti EV quickly obsolete.
"We need to re-evaluate our assumptions," he said. "It would not be so smart to introduce a car when perhaps 12 or 18 months down the road you have all-new battery technology."..
Well, If Tesla ever does actually bring an EV in the "$30k price range" to the market I should hope it will be at least in some way superior to the ~$30k BEV Nissan introduced ~ a decade earlier...="RonDawg"
...However, I think it has a lot to do with Elon Musk's recent announcement that he was going to bring an EV in the "$30k price range" but would be superior in every way to the Leaf. Infiniti's decision to delay (perhaps forever) the LE was published not long after Musk's announcement.
