Infiniti Considers Four Door Coupe Flagship to Take On Porsche Panamera, Hybrid Midengine Supercar to Follow

by TTAC Staff

Updated: February 18th, 2014

infiniti considers four door coupe flagship to take on porsche panamera hybrid

Infiniti Essence concept

Andy Palmer, who is in charge of global future product planning for Nissan, says that the company’s Infiniti luxury brand is considering a sporty four door flagship to compete in the segment defined by the Porsche Panamera. A likely candidate would be Nissan design chief Shiro Nakamura’s Infiniti Essence concept first shown at the 2009 Geneva Auto Show. However, an Infiniti flagship would not reach the market before 2017. It would be part of Nissan’s goal to grow Infiniti into a global luxury brand by the end of the decade.

Infiniti has not competed head to head with European luxury marques in the S Class or 7 Series segment since the early days of Nissan’s luxury brand and the original Q45. Instead Infiniti has built its brand around a lineup of sporty sedans, coupes and crossovers. “We can’t just take on the opposition directly,” said Infiniti chief Johann de Nysschen while speaking to Automotive News. “We have to bring our own unique flavor to the global market.”

“We won’t do a Merc S class or that type of car,” said Palmer. “We have had that before. We want a flagship car that’s appealing and different.”

While they say they don’t want to make a S Class clone, because of contractual agreements between Nissan and Daimler the Infiniti flagship could be based on Mercedes-Benz’s latest modular MRA rear-wheel-drive architecture.

Sources say that Nakamura and his team are working with the Essence’s proportions and roofline so the basic shape will be retained while adding two more doors and more interior space.

The new flagship is not a given, a business case still has to be made for it. “We have the halo car in the plan, but it is not signed off yet,” said Palmer. “The sales of [sedans] like the Q50 and SUVs like the QX60 will have to be going well and then I can go to our approval committee.” The new 4 door coupe would possibly be named the Q100, the same moniker given to Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull F1 car, which Infiniti sponsors.

Infiniti Emerg E concept

The new flagship would be part of a $6.46 billion plan to make Infiniti a significant player in the global luxury market, with a target of earning a 10% share of that market by 2020, about half a million cars annually. The current lineup is being updated and rebranded and another five models will be added to Infiniti showrooms.

Should it be greenlighted for production, the flagship will possibly be joined by a mid-engined hybrid supercar based on the Emerg-E concept, to serve as a halo for the brand’s sportier cars.

#AndyPalmer #Infiniti #LuxuryCars #Nissan #PorschePanamera #ShiroNakamura

TTAC Staff

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14 of 35 comments

Sportyaccordy on Oct 21, 2013

Flagships are irrelevant. Old man cars. The future is in high style cars like the A7. Nobody under 30 aspires to own something like an A8. It's all about the Range Rovers and CLSs.

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- 28-Cars-Later on Oct 21, 2013
  
  Whats the difference between an A7 and an A8 except backseat room in the latter?
  
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- Jmo on Oct 21, 2013
  
  @28-Cars-Later A8 is aluminum and the A7 (being based on the A6) is steel.
  
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- 28-Cars-Later on Oct 21, 2013
  
  @jmo Thx Jmo. Evidently all of these models are based on the VAG MLB platform Audi A4 (B8) (Typ 8K)[7] Audi A5 (Typ 8T)[7] Audi Q5 (Typ 8R)[7][8] Audi A6 (C7) (Typ 4G) [7] Audi A7 (Typ 4G) [7] Audi A8 (D4) (Typ 4H) So if A8 is the longer all alum version of the bunch, I'm failing to see why there even IS an A7 if its a warmed over A6. So based on SportyAccordy's argument did everyone under 30 eat lead paint as a child if this is what they are after? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Group_MLB_platform
  
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- Jmo on Oct 21, 2013
  
  @28-Cars-Later ", I’m failing to see why there even IS an A7 if its a warmed over A6. " It looks better than an A6. If you're willing to give up some practicality, you can get a CLS or A7 which are much more attractive than the E-Class or A6 on which they are based.
  
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- 28-Cars-Later on Oct 21, 2013
  
  @28-Cars-Later No argument about looks but its just not registering for me logically. Maybe its working with [bad] software for so long in the professional sphere.
  
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- Sportyaccordy on Oct 21, 2013
  
  @28-Cars-Later There's nothing logical about a $90,000 car purchase. So considerations like interior room or whatever are kind of meaningless. The intangibles you write off are why the Phaeton failed while the A8 has continued to sell and get updates, despite them being the same damn car. Don't write off the illogical, the whole luxury market is illogical.
  
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- Ash78 on Oct 22, 2013
  
  @28-Cars-Later I think, collectively, there are lots of us out there who say "What is the point of the VW CC, Mercedes CLS, Audi A7, etc" I scream it from the rooftops. Because in this era of economic austerity and pragmatism, it's hard for me to stomach that all these car companies are extending into "new" models instead of making the current ones better, cheaper, more diverse, and more appealing. All car lines will have winners that subsidize the losers. I just can't believe some cosmetic styling--at the EXPENSE of practicality and versatility--is moving so many cars. On a related note, I saved up all my Audi model line extension vitriol for this blog post: http://taketheoutsideline.blogspot.com/2013/07/audi-to-unveil-decimalized-models-by.html
  
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- Jmo on Oct 22, 2013
  
  @28-Cars-Later "Because in this era of economic austerity" The global rich have never done better than they are doing now.
  
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- Jmo on Oct 22, 2013
  
  @28-Cars-Later "despite them being the same damn car." The Phaeton is steel and the A8 is aluminum.
  
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- Ash78 on Oct 22, 2013
  
  jmo -- true, but VAG isn't building an entire brand strategy from appealing to the 1%. They're more like the 20% car company. And a lot of that 19% are making less opulent choices than they were 10 years ago. I guess that's where leasing comes in :D
  
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- Ryoku75 on Oct 22, 2013
  
  @28-Cars-Later I'm just surprised that Audi sells so many VWs, but as far as I know theres far too many uneeded variants that VW builds under their own name let alone Porsche, Audi, etc.
  
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- 28-Cars-Later on Oct 22, 2013
  
  @ash78 One [made up] word: re-feudalization.
  
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Racer-esq. on Oct 21, 2013

Infiniti could have just bought Fisker and had this right now.

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