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Infiniti is blazing an unconventional path to electrification

When it comes to electrification, Infiniti has a history of speaking a great deal but doing little. The Nissan-owned company's plug-in offensive will start in the 2020s, and it provided preliminary details about the technology that motorists can expect to find in showrooms in the not-too-distant future. Eric Rigaux, Infiniti's general manager of product strategy and planning, told Roadshow the firm's engineering department is putting the final touches on two forward-thinking electrified powertrains. The first one will run solely on electricity, while the second one will rely on a gasoline-powered generator to provide more range. Both are being developed to fit into a flexible new platform. Technical details about the electric setup remain vague, so we don't know how big of a battery pack Infiniti will use, or how many motors will draw electricity from it. However, Roadshow learned the gasoline-electric layout will never need to be plugged in, because a 1.5-liter, three-cylinder engine equipped with Infiniti's innovative variable-compression technology will produce the electricity it needs to run. The triple won't directly spin the wheels; it will channel the juice it creates to a battery pack. It's not a zero-emissions solution, but it's one that makes a lot of sense, because users won't need to wait for a charge, and they'll be able to drive for about 500 miles between fill-ups. The now-defunct Chevrolet Volt featured a similar drivetrain, but owners had the possibility of plugging it in. Infiniti won't give motorists that option; there won't be a plug anywhere on the car. Fluid-filled motor mounts and active noise cancellation will ensure the passengers don't feel or hear the triple whirring away. Meanwhile, two electric motors (one over each axle) will deliver between 248 and 429 horsepower; final specifications haven't been signed off yet. And, because power will come from gasoline, there's no need to integrate a bulky battery pack into the chassis. Infiniti's future gasoline-electric models won't require anything bigger than a 5.1-kilowatt-hour unit, which can unintrusively be stuffed under the trunk floor or sandwiched between the floor and the rear seat. Infiniti chose a crossover to inaugurate its battery-electric powertrain; the QX Inspiration concept (pictured) unveiled during the 2019 Detroit Auto Show shed light on what the model will look like.

Interest in an Infiniti EV is muted, to say the least

More than a quarter-million people have bought an electric vehicle from the Renault-Nissan Alliance. When it comes to Nissan's Infiniti luxury nameplate, though, there's not a lot of confidence. The Alliance doesn't have much hope that the badge will add to that total anytime soon. So says Emirates 24/7 in its report that Infiniti is planning on opening two showrooms in Abu Dhabi. Models such as the QX80 SUV, the Q70 sedan, and the Q50 will be shown off to those looking to live the high life, Infiniti style. But company executives told the publication that no battery-electric Infiniti models would be in the works until at least the end of the decade? The reason? Lack of demand. It's a far cry from three years ago, when a concept version of the Infiniti LE electric vehicle was shown off at the New York Auto Show. The model boasted 134 horsepower and 240 pound-feet of torque as well as wireless-charging capabilities. It was about the size of the Infiniti G sedan. At the time, the automaker's executives were estimating that car would hit the market by 2014. Those plans didn't come to fruition, obviously. As for the Alliance, Renault and Nissan celebrated the sale of their 250,000th electric vehicle this past summer. And while the lion's share of those were in the form of the Nissan Leaf, the 250,000th vehicle was actually a Renault Zoe that was bought by a computer engineer in Bordeaux, France. That's a long way from the UAE, and a long way from an Infiniti EV.

Infiniti gets boiled down to four P's: Performance, passion, precision, provocation

So then we asked, "Well, what does that mean?"
We met Andreas Sigl, the global director of Infiniti's Formula One involvement (that's him above on the right), at the US Grand Prix in Austin last year, and our questions to him were aimed at understanding what Infiniti was doing and where it intended to go. In spite of regard for its products and increased sales, few outside - and even inside - Infiniti seemed to have a clear idea of what the brand stood for.