Join the Club: Infiniti Becomes the Latest Automaker to Go 'Electric'

There’s that misleading word again. At this week’s North American International Auto Show, Infiniti promised it would only field new products featuring some sort of electrified propulsion starting in 2021, thus joining half the automotive universe in promising an “electric” future.

In reality, this means each new model appearing after the target date will launch with at least a hybrid variant in tow. In Infiniti’s case, it means a handful of fully electric vehicles, plus the use of a novel Nissan technology that sees a gasoline engine running at all times.

Showing the inherent danger of the English language, Infiniti’s announcement claims “electric” vehicles will make up more than half of the brand’s global sales by 2025. A few paragraphs later, the promise switches to “electrified” vehicles. That’s enough semantics for now; take note that the latter statement is the correct one.

Infiniti’s promise comes as the automaker parades around its Q Inspiration concept vehicle (pictured above), a curvaceous midsize sedan that telegraphs Infiniti’s future design direction. Appearing under the Q Inspiration’s hood is the brand’s innovative VC-Turbo variable compression four-cylinder engine, bound first for the 2019 QX50 crossover. The compact engine apparently affords the car an airy cabin worthy of the full-size class.

Amazing — a futuristic concept car powered by gasoline. Sadly, this svelte, pillarless, rear-drive sedan, complete with knee-weakening suicide doors, is exactly the type of vaporware that never sees the light of a showroom. As well, the sedan segment’s Lusitania-like sales trajectory does nothing to alleviate our pessimism. It’s possible the future popularity of electric vehicles (still an uncertain thing) will make such a vehicle viable as a green luxury halo car, but time will tell.

Still, Infiniti’s Q Inspiration is more than just a range-topping concept. There’s a “proposed” platform beneath it, one that anticipates “the impending adoption of more advanced forms of propulsion,” Infiniti claims. The brand’s designer, Karim Habib, tells Autocar that an electric Q Inspiration variant is very doable.

The brand definitely needs new bones if it expects to package an electric motor and big battery pack into numerous new models. As for the “electrified” models, Infiniti’s tapping Nissan’s e-Power system for those.

e-Power involves a small gasoline engine — running at a set speed — that charges the battery powering the vehicle’s electric drive motor. The ICE and drive wheels never mix. It’s a fairly simple setup that offers fuel savings combined with the torquey, linear acceleration of an electric car, only with less cost and complexity than a traditional hybrid or plug-in hybrid. Indeed, the first e-Power vehicle offered for sale was the lowly, Japanese-market Nissan Versa Note.

[Image: Infiniti]