Infiniti's Next Concept Car Previews a New All-Electric Crossover
UPDATE 12/14/18: Infiniti has officially announced that a new all-electric crossover will join its lineup and that it will preview the new model with a concept car at the Detroit auto show in January. Like Infiniti hinted to C/D before, this new model's design will be inspired by the original FX crossover, and the teaser photo above bears this out given what we can see of the concept car's sporty silhouette. This concept will also debut a new EV platform for the luxury brand; stay tuned to hear more about the battery technology and electric motors that this new Infiniti EV will use.
Surrounded by automotive legends of the past, Infiniti hinted a little about its future this week. During a small gathering at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, Roland Krueger, Infiniti's president, suggested Infiniti is working on the follow-up to its Prototype 10 and that this next one will be inspired by the original Infiniti FX crossover.
"That car was really bold, an icon, and its design is still relevant today," Krueger said of the original FX45 crossover. The Infiniti chief said the Prototype 10-which debuted during this year's Monterey Car Week and was also on display at the Petersen-showcases the future design language of the brand's forthcoming electric cars.
The next Prototype in the series will continue to demonstrate and evolve the new design language, in this case indicating what Infiniti's electric crossovers will take inspiration from.
And 2019 will be an especially significant year, as it marks the 30th anniversary of Infiniti. The brand was originally announced by Nissan at the 1989 Detroit auto show, which changed its named to the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) that year.
Karim Habib, Infiniti's executive design director, told us at the debut of the Prototype 10 (pictured above) in August that this was the first manifestation of the new design language that we would see on Infiniti's electric cars, beginning in 2021. The FX-inspired Prototype will further evolve that vision. Habib said the new design language is aiming to be "minimalist, but engaging, compelling, and expressive."
The FX-inspired Prototype car will likely be shown in the same silver color as prototypes 9 and 10 and will represent cars built on Infiniti's new electric platform. Expect the next car also to boast the "modern surface treatment" of the sleek 10. We'll have more details when the design study is shown off this January in Detroit, if not teased sooner.
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