Harsh but true: Infiniti has been a fairly boring brand for some time now, which is why the attractive Q Inspiration concept that debuted last January—a car that Infiniti said showcased “the next step in Infiniti design”—was so interesting. And which is why we should pay attention to the new QX Inspiration concept that Infiniti introduced today.
It’s an electric crossover clearly based on that Q Inspiration, and the brand says it represents a look at Infiniti’s fully electrified future.
We may be looking at “the beginning of a new era” for Infiniti. At least, that’s what the brand wants us to think, saying in a press release that the QX Inspiration concept “represents INFINITI’s plans for high-performance electrified vehicles, offering complete range confidence while signaling a new era for Infiniti design enabled by new technology.”
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We knew this vehicle was coming, as we saw a teaser image of the light-adorned electric crossover back in December, and back in April, we heard that Infiniti’s plans of making an electric car based on the Q Inspiration Concept, which shares a number of design queues—especially the thin headlights and the full-mouth-looking grille—with this new QX Inspiration.
The two cars do not, however, share much when it comes to the overall profile, with the Q Inspiration looking like a sleek sports sedan, and the QX Inspiration—which we’ll see at the Detroit Auto Show about a week—looking rather chunky from the side, with a tall beltline, relatively small windows, short overhangs, and black fender flares.
At Automotive News World Congress in Detroit last January, the eponymous publication quoted Hiroto Saikawa, Nissan’s president and CEO, as saying that “all new Infiniti models launched after 2021 will either be all-electric vehicles or will rely on the parent company’s new range-extending electric motor-powered technology called ePower.”
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This QX Inspiration could be among our first visual indicators of what that electrified future looks like for the Hong Kong-headquarted luxury division of Nissan. And while it’s not quite as sexy as the Q Inspiration, it’s still different and interesting, which is what Infiniti needs right now if it wants to stand out.
How true the brand’s future electrified production cars stay true to this design language, we won’t know until we see the final products.
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