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  Nissan managing director Dan Thompson is confident Australia will see Infiniti here by 2012.

Nissan Australia has put Infiniti back at the top of its things-to-do list.

The luxury arm of the Japanese car maker was put on hold for an introduction to Australia because of the financial crisis, but Nissan Australia managing director Dan Thompson says it is set for 2012-2013 return and will be a stand-alone brand.

“I think it will take us two-plus years to get it going and build a network, the right-hand drive vehicles are there now, it's launched in Europe, we have to allow enough time to build a proper network, stand-alone Infiniti dealers,” he says. “The network side will take 18-24 months, we have a little bit of work to finish up but I'm confident we'll see it as a brand here by 2012."

Thompson says they are confident the Infiniti brand will work in Australia. “Infiniti to us is a stand-alone brand and very much one we know will work here, certainly now things have settled from a market perspective, and we have a lot more confidence in the near and medium term as to what the industry holds, especially the premium and luxury market holds," he says.

The decision-makers were well into working on plans to get Nissan's version of the Toyota-owned Lexus brand to Australia but the global financial crisis put that introduction on hold. “We had gone a ways down the track before the GFC. We had to make a lot of tough calls and one of those was to put Infiniti on ice and focus on Nissan. “But thankfully the GFC is a distant memory at least in this market - I'm 100 per cent confident that it will work here but I'm not going to rush it," he says.

Thompson says the company's plans suggest a two-year program to build a dealer network, but the right-hand drive vehicles are there now. "We have a little bit of work to finish up but I'm confident we'll see it as a brand here by 2012," he says.