A week prior to this announcement, Infiniti told that it’s adding 300 new jobs at its Sunderland factory in the United Kingdom to meet the production quota for the 2016 Infiniti Q30. At long last, the Japanese manufacturer came clean about the place and date of unveiling of its first-ever premium hatchback in the C-segment - three months to go until IAA 2015.
With the Q30, Nissan’s premium brand is threading on a road it never walked on prior to this model. A lot lies on the shoulders of the men and women behind this project, including the R&D know-how offered by Mercedes-Benz. Slated to go on sale at the end of 2015, it took Infiniti two years to morph the concept vehicle that debuted at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show into the product you will be admiring in September.
According to the boffins tasked with fine-tuning the Infiniti Q30, the model is in the final stages of “dynamic testing and ultimate validation,” testing that takes places in the United Kingdom and mainland Europe. An interesting detail regarding the Q30 is the fact that development started in early 2014 in the UK, with little help from the brand’s stronghold in the Land of the Rising Sun.
Compared to the Mercedes-Benz A-Class on which it’s based upon, the 2016 Infiniti Q30 wears narrow headlamps, a sharply pointed front fascia design and a dramatically raked hatchback that oozes dynamism. From the side profile, there are certain visual cues shared with the A-Class, including the descending character line, edgy side skirts, and the muscly wheel arches.
What to look forward to in terms of engine and transmission options? It’s anybody’s guess until Infiniti offers official intel, though that doesn’t stop us from guessing that a selection of four-cylinder turbo petrol and diesel mills from Nissan and the three-pointed star will be employed. 4Matic all-wheel drive is a probable option on higher output models, as is the 7G-DCT 7-speed automatic transmission from Merc.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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