Infiniti Reportedly Working on a 4 Series Competitor

Infiniti Q80 Preview (Credit: © Infiniti)

Infiniti has been on a bit of a rebuilding kick that began when Johan de Nysschen took over the company and continues now that he has moved onto Cadillac. The changes began with a reorganization of its naming scheme to a more structured order where the letters indicated the type of vehicle and the numbers indicated its place in the lineup, and continued with the development of the GT-R-powered Q50 Eau Rouge concept. According to an interview TopGear had with Infiniti’s chief creative officer, Shiro Nakamura, this pattern of change is continuing with a four-series competitor.

Nakamura told TopGear that the two-door Infiniti is something that he wants and that “you’ll see is within one year.” He went on to say that it will be “a bit bigger than a BMW 4 Series, but not as big as a 6 Series.” He elaborated by cluing TopGear into the fact that the new coupe will take some design cues from the Q80 concept that the Japanese automaker is revealing at the 2014 Paris Auto Show and that there may be a Eau Rouge version of this coupe to do battle with the M4 and M6.

One of my fears was that with de Nysschen leaving Infiniti that the company would settle back into the rut of producing the same things that it fell into before. But with this news in-hand, it looks as if the Nissan off-shoot is continuing to embrace change and is still striving to legitimately compete with BMW and Mercedes instead of always just being the “cheaper alternative.” Nakamura elaborated more on this by explaining the fact that Infiniti needs volume but it also needs to maintain exclusivity, which is why the company is moving slowly with its plans.

It’s a crazy game that luxury automakers have to play to keep up in this ever-changing world of cars, but it looks like Infiniti has a solid plan moving forward.