2015 Infiniti Q50 is the Latest Luxury Sedan to go With a Turbo Four-Cylinder

2014 Infiniti Q50 S (Credit: © Infiniti)

Last year, Infiniti announced that it would manufacture a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine here in the U.S., then it followed that up with the unexpected announcement that this new engine would only be an option in Europe. Now, just one year later and with pressure to go turbo-four coming from all sides, Infiniti is finally unleashing its 2.0-liter turbocharged engine in the U.S.-spec Q50.

Infiniti made this announcement via a three-line update in a press release regarding overall lineup changes for the 2016 model year. Understandably, the details remain a bit sketchy for now, but we can always look back to the Euro-spec 2.0-liter for reference.

In Europe, the turbocharged Q50 produces 211 horsepower and 236 pound-feet of torque, making it a nice midway point between the 320i and the 328i. While it lines up perfectly with Bimmer, the new turbocharged Q50 falls well short of its key competitors, given this output remains unchanged. Even the newly released Lexus IS 200t has 241 ponies and 258 pound-feet of torque.

With its competitors in mind, I can only hope that Infiniti has tweaked this engine slightly to at least match the IS 200t’s output. I highly doubt that a fringe luxury brand like Infiniti can afford to be that far down on power without a significantly undercutting its competitors.

As I said earlier, the brevity of the press release leaves a lot to be desired, so we’ll have to wait until it’s closer to its debut to learn more about this revised Q50. Infiniti estimates that the turbocharged Q50 will be available in the winter of 2015, so keep it locked here for additional info.