To paraphrase the old Doublemint Gum tagline, the new Infiniti Q30 Concept is three, three, three cars in one.
Set to make its official world premiere at the Frankfurt Motor Show next month, the prototype is, as Infiniti’s release puts it, “not a coupe, not a hatch and not a crossover but a fusion of the three body styles.”
The Q30 is the latest in a long-running series of prototypes – including the well-reviewed Essense, Etherea and Emerg-e – intended to reveal what the Nissan luxury brand refers to as “the contemporary design vision” it is following at this rather critical stage in its corporate life. Long stuck in the second tier of largely U.S.-focused upscale brands, Infiniti is now determined to reposition itself as a truly global Tier I luxury marque.
It has been spun off as a relatively independent entity, set up a new headquarters in Hong Kong – where it can closely track the booming Chinese luxury market – and added its own design and engineering operations. Infiniti also has migrated to a new alphanumeric nomenclature, with passenger cars all beginning with a “Q” designation, and trucks and crossovers dubbed “QX.”
The fact that the new Infiniti show car is being referred to as the Q30 – Concept or otherwise – makes it quite clear that it is closely tracking with what the production Q30 will look like. Expect to see a production model to almost certainly carry a 2015 designation.
“This Infiniti Q30 Concept is a prelude to the product portfolio expansion which underpins our aggressive global growth strategy,” Johan de Nysschen, President of Infiniti Motor Company, Ltd., said a few weeks back, when the maker first revealed plans to show a concept in Frankfurt.
Equally revealing, de Nysschen suggested that, “In our quest to appeal to the modern, young-minded premium customer, the Infiniti Q30 Concept has a distinctive style and reaches new levels of product quality.”
In the new Infiniti naming strategy, the Q30 badge suggests a four- (or even 5-) door design, and something smaller than the recently launched Infiniti Q50. It would go up against the likes of a BMW 3-Series or even an X3, depending on how the production model were eventually positioned.
Earlier this month, Alfonso Albaisa, Infiniti’s Executive Design Director, described the Q30 Concept as “slender, sleek and seductive,” likening it to “speedy big cats, like cheetahs, (that) have a slenderness and a lightweight stride. It’s almost like they’re floating. That’s the muscularity we were aiming for with Q30 Concept.”
But the strong sculpturing of the doors and fenders might also bring to mind some of the recent designs from Mazda – though the Q30 Concept maintains the distinctive crescent kick-up first seen on the JX crossover a year ago.
The Infiniti Q30 is the first of the maker’s models to be influenced, “from its inception,” the maker notes, by three-time Formula One world champion and new Infiniti Director of Performance Sebastian Vettel. He joined the maker in mid-development of the Q50.
As we have seen many times before…when car makers try to mix design aspects of different models they often end up with a horrible mess as the Q30 illustrates.