2021 Infiniti Qx80 Premium Select Leather Push Button Start Powerseat on 2040-cars

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800k car names trademarked globally, suddenly alphanumerics seem reasonable

What's in a name? This cliched phrase probably gets tossed out at every marketing meeting that happens when a new car gets its nomenclature. We know the answer, though: everything. The name of a car has all the potential to make or break it with fickle customers that are more conscious than ever about what their purchases say about them.
That's giving headaches to marketing folks across the automotive industry. "It's tough. In 1985 there were about 75,000 names trademarked in the automotive space. Today there are 800,000," Chevrolet's head of marketing, Russ Clark, told Automotive News. Infiniti's president, Johan de Nysschen, echoed Clark's sentiment, saying, "The truth of the matter is, across the world, there is hardly a name or a letter that hasn't already been claimed by one car manufacturer or another. You can go through the alphabet - A, B, C and so forth - and you will quickly see that almost all available letters are taken."
What has that left automakers to do? Get creative. In the case of Infiniti, it made the controversial move to bring all of its cars' names into a new scheme, classifying them as Q#0 for cars and QX#0 for SUVs and crossovers. So the Infiniti G, which was available as the G25 and G37, is now the Q50. The FX37 and FX50 are now the QX70.

4 ways Infiniti’s Q Inspiration concept bridges present and future

Infiniti's new Q Inspiration concept is a striking fastback sedan that the company says reflects an inflection point for both the luxury brand and the broader auto industry itself. It represents a bridge between technologies. That's true in the literal sense; it employs Infiniti's new variable compression turbocharged engine technology, which provides performance features while maximizing efficiency, and bridges the gap to more advanced powertrains. It also features Nissan's ProPilot semi-autonomous driving technology. But it's also true for the concept car's design, which Infiniti says provides a simple, elegant solution to complex technological questions — offering a palate cleanser, if you will, for the complicated technologies hidden beneath the gleaming surfaces. Oddly enough, the futuristic-looking Q Inspiration owes a debt of gratitude to the Prototype 9, the concept based on a 1940s-style grand prix car that Infiniti released last year. Alfonso Albaisa, Infiniti's senior vice president for global design, said that project became "a kind of a blank canvas for us to play with" and allowed for new discovery and expression with minimal brush strokes. It also led designers back to Ma, the Japanese concept of mastery of empty space. We spoke with Albaisa about how the concept's design echoes the theme of bridging the present and future. 1. The cabin's forward proportion and roominess Using the space-efficient VC-Turbo engine gave the designers space to shift the cabin forward and move the A-pillars back, creating a more centered and elongated cabin, with maximum headroom. The interior is clean, with orange and black leather with orange accents and backlit birch wood accents. The center console is floating, providing seamless connectivity to technology and hiding mechanical elements. Albaisa says it's the first manifestation of Infiniti's new form language for an era of advanced powertrain and future technologies. 2. The grille In what Albaisa describes as "a little bit of an accident" and "kind of tongue-in-cheek," the Q Inspiration's grille is a kind of trompe l'oeuil phenomenon. From directly in front, you can see the small fins, but viewed from the side, they disappear. So much so that Albaisa said he was initially fooled. "From a functional point of view, we need to breathe," he said. "But I think in the future, where there'll be a lot different types of technology, probably the car can breathe less. So we don't need that dominating big open mouth.

Infiniti QX80 Monograph: Not just luxury, 'upscale luxury'

We've been getting a slow rollout of news about the new Infiniti QX80 Monograph mega-SUV for the past week or two, and Infiniti provided more details Tuesday about its concept car at the New York Auto Show, saying the mega-SUV is a combination of "luxury with a commanding presence" and "the ultimate expression of futuristic luxury SUV design." Infiniti says the car embodies, not just luxury, but "upscale luxury." The company says the concept's design language incorporates a mix of geometric and organic shapes, including character lines and aluminum trim that were actually intended to make the big SUV appear even bigger than it actually is, which is more than five meters long, so perhaps 17 feet, more than 6 feet wide and about 6 feet tall. The most striking features are the headlamps, which become long, slender lines that wrap around the front corners, then taper into light bars that end at the doors in sculptured rear-view cameras in lieu of side mirrors. The car also has large, functional fender vents to divert air to the engine, and despite all that luxury it is still SUV enough to have an underbody cover protecting the underside - and improving aerodynamics. Likewise, an aerofoil between the tailpipes is said to improve airflow in the SUV's wake. It's a big, beautiful rig. Cue the beauty roll above and gallery below: View 12 Photos Related Video: Related Gallery Infiniti QX80 Monograph View 15 Photos Image Credit: Live photos copyright 2017 Drew Phillips / Autoblog.com Design/Style New York Auto Show Infiniti SUV Luxury 2017 new york auto show infiniti qx80 infiniti qx80 monograph