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Infiniti Q30 to Debut in Geneva with 2-Liter Turbo from Mercedes

After the Smart+Renault partnership, the alliance between Mercedes and the company led by Carlos Ghosn deepens. Of course, everybody knows that Infiniti will launch a brand new compact premium hatchback aimed squarely at the typical European buyer, but not much else has been told… until now.
Infiniti Q30 1 photo
Photo: screenshot from Youtube
Nissan insiders have told us the company is currently drafting a press statement for the Geneva Motor Show debut of the all-new Q30 right now. The official debut date has not been set yet, but the company needs to move into the production phase soon, as the Sunderland factory in Britain has been re-tooled for the car's arrival during the winter holiday.

What's that about Mercedes?

The link between Nissan and Mercedes seems to have gone deeper than ever. The reason why we saw an A-Class together with the Q30 prototype in the spy video taken a few weeks ago is because Mercedes actually did the final development.

It is the Mercedes MFA platform used the GLA and CLA that underpins this car and Nissan only set the specific parameters under which the engine responds or the steering wheel delivers feedback.

Even the engine will be a Mercedes unit, the 211 PS 2-liter turbo engine that the Japanse firm has also borrowed for the Q50. We've heard that the engines will be made under license by a jointly owned factory in America and shipped over to Sunderland, England, where pressing, paint and final assembly takes place.

Later in 2015, the Q30 will be joined by a higher-riding version called the QX30, the smallest 4x4 ever offered in the brand's 26-year history.

New safety tech

Nissan seems to be more into making self-driving cars than GT-Rs and this will show with the Q30, which will adopt all the latest safety features that have been integrated into the Nissan Safety Shield suite. This will include every kind of assist, including forward collision, blind spot and lane keep assist.

Our favorite part is the bird-eye view monitor available on the Qashqai, which makes parking absurdly simple. When in reverse, the car will even warn the driver about moving objects that suddenly appear behind him.

Younger buyers who are new to the segment will be targeted, hopefully with a sticker that's considerably lower than the A-Class' MSRP.

In 2017, Infiniti will begin producing the Q30 at a new factory in Aguascalientes, Mexico, along with a trio of unspecified Mercedes-Benz compact vehicles, likely to be the GLA, CLA and CLA Shooting Brake or maybe the new GLB SUV model that's expected to come out.

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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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