Heading up Infiniti’s corporate sales in the UK is Simon Lewis, who joins Infiniti from Audi UK where he was area fleet sales manager for London and the South East. Prior to that he was in the BMW dealer network. Simon began his career with the lease company Alphabet in 1998 and held roles in sales and marketing after gaining an Honours degree in Economics from the University of Wales.

'Infiniti has set itself very demanding targets and the key to achieving them in the UK lies in successful corporate sales,' said Mr Lewis. 'I have worked for car importers, dealers and lease companies, and I have worked with drivers, fleet operators and senior fleet personnel. So I can look at things from all sides – and that will be invaluable for the challenge ahead.'

Simon, who will report to Tony Lewis, Regional director Europe North (no relation), added: 'Infiniti’s fleet offer keeps getting better – for example, the latest 159g/km M35h hybrid. In the not-too-distant future we will have four-cylinder engines, a zero-emissions model and an all-new entrant in the premium C-sector. That’s in addition to the performance models and crossovers which, until now, have defined the brand – along, of course, with our involvement with Formula One World Champions Red Bull Racing and Sebastian Vettel.

'With all that in place I am confident Infiniti’s position in the UK fleet sales market can be transformed over the coming years.'

The new UK fleet role echoes changes in Infiniti’s other key European markets as the brand moves into the next phase of its five-year growth strategy. The ambitious plan calls for a 10% share of the global luxury car market – around 100,000 cars at current volumes – by the end of fiscal year 2016.

Newly created Infiniti sales posts include Regional directors for Central and West Europe, new Area manager and Corporate Sales manager roles in North Europe, and a new Remarketing manager at the Rolle headquarters in Switzerland. In Germany, Michael Speh, newly appointed Regional director for Central Europe, gets the support of a Fleet manager for the first time. Dirk Becker will concentrate on the growing fleet importance of lower emissions vehicles as Infiniti’s range expands in that direction.

More staff and more sales mean more Infiniti Centres and today’s total of around 50 – spread across 20 European countries – is set to rise to about 230 by the end of 2016. The UK (currently six Centres) and Germany (five) will get about 40 Centres each, with the other key markets of Italy and France not far behind.