Infiniti may have made some rather questionable engineering choices in the last few years, what with their steer-by-wire system and the adoption of a sluggish Intel-based entertainment system, but one can’t deny that their styling seems to be spot on. They’ve managed to toe the line between being conservative and going full overboard, which was the transition that Lexus made with their current generation of models.
The Q30 was announced as their compact contender, designed to fight against cars like the BMW 1 Series or the Mercedes A-Class. That being said, Infinit slowly started to lean towards producing a compact cross-over instead, and the Q30 gained a couple of inches in ride height over it’s initial design brief.
For now there’s just the one teaser of the Q30, but it certainly looks very handsome. The pillar-mounted handles for the rear door which appeared in both the Q30 and QX30 concepts are not present on this production-esque looking car, but the handles still manage to blend well with the bodywork. Again, there are some Mazda undertones, but on the whole the new Infiniti front end looks fantastic on a hatchback shape.
There’s no word on what engines will be used to power these hatchbacks, but hopefully we’ll begin to see this model officially offered in our market in due time. The Lexus CT 200h is beginning to look a little dated, and the Germans could use a Japanese counterpoint for a more varied and diverse market.
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