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Infiniti G37 to live on in showrooms alongside 2014 Q50

Infiniti is preparing to roll out its hotly anticipated 2014 Q50, a car that not only ushers in a new alphanumeric naming strategy, it ostensibly replaces the G37 as the brand's bread-and-butter sport sedan. That will happen, but not in the short-term, as the G37 will continue to be manufactured and sold alongside the Q50, at least for the rest of this year.
Infiniti spokesman Kyle Bazemore has confirmed to Autoblog that a decision is pending on how long to extend the G37 sedan's production run. "We're taking Q50 up a little bit, and that allows us to keep the G Sedan in the lineup... It [Q50] certainly started as a replacement, but it ended up being much more than that." Confusingly, Infiniti has already announced that the Q50 is to start at $37,605 (including $905 destination charge), yet the 2013 G37 is more expensive, starting at $38,255 delivered according to Infiniti's consumer website. Thus, a price drop on the G37 is likely coming in short order.
So why hold on to the older model? With the Q50 launching exclusively with V6 and Hybrid models (a turbo four and diesel are said to be in the cards down the road), Infiniti evidently feels it is risking leaving lower-end sales on the table. "There's a lot of movement with the [BMW] 320i and such, and this allows us a two-tier strategy to compete," says Bazemore. Keeping the G37 on tap at a lower price for fleet sale duty may also serve to protect the Q50 as it establishes itself on the market.

Infiniti's variable compression engine in the 2019 QX50 is the first of its kind

The world's first variable compression ratio engine is here, in a production car. That car is the 2019 Infiniti QX50, debuting this week at the Los Angeles Auto Show. The midsize crossover has seen a refresh that has brought it an all-new platform together with new driver assist features, but it's the engine that's the centerpiece here. Nearly everything is continuously variable under the hood of the QX50 – not only the new shift-by-wire XTRONIC CVT. The new VC-Turbo gasoline engine is able to change its compression ratio from 8:1 to 14:1, or anything in between depending of the driving situation; whether there is need for top-end power or turbodiesel-like torque from low revs, or optimized fuel economy. The pistons' reach is continuously adjusted by an electric "Harmonic Drive" motor, which controls a multi-link system, affecting the top-dead-center of the pistons and changing the compression. The engine can also switch between efficiency-maximizing Atkinson cycle and regular combustion cycle, on the go – and there's both multipoint injection and gasoline direct injection employed. The result is 268 horsepower at 5,600 rpm and 280 pound-feet of torque at 4,400 rpm; good figures for a 2.0-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine with a single-scroll turbocharger. Infiniti says that the FWD version's fuel economy of 27 miles per gallon combined is 35-percent better than the previous-generation V6 engine; in AWD guise, it reaches 26 mpg, which is a 30-percent improvement. The new engine is pretty much all-aluminum, but the vaguely magical-sounding "transformative multi-link components" behind the variable compression system are made from high-carbon steel alloy. The engine's multi-link system also enables it to do away with any balancing shafts, and Infiniti compares its smoothness to a V6 rather than a regular four-cylinder. In addition to the aforementioned tech, the VC-Turbo engine has the world's first active engine mount vibration damping system to smoothen its operation even further. Related Video:

Recharge Wrap-up: Infiniti considers EV for China, NextEV hires former Tesla, Apple engineer

NextEV has hired Tesla Autopilot and Apple veteran Jamie Carlson as Senior Director of Advanced Technologies. The seasoned autonomous driving engineer joins fellow former Autopilot engineer Kurt Thywissen, who is now NextEV Senior Director of Human-Machine Interaction. NextEV, which is working on an all-electric supercar before focusing on mainstream EVs, recently obtained a self-driving car permit from California and opened its North American headquarters in San Jose. Read more at Electrek. Infiniti is considering launching its first EV in China. "When I think about EV, we design it for China definitely, even as the first market to launch," says Infiniti President Roland Krueger. "We are discussing this internally constantly what is the right timing for Infiniti to have such vehicles." Infiniti has held back on launching an EV, focusing instead on hybrids, but says it could be "very fast" in deploying an EV once it decides to do so. Having Nissan and Renault backing Infiniti, the luxury brand is confident about its access to proven EV technology. Read more at Automotive News Europe. Thrifty car rental has added a Tesla Model S to its fleet in Canberra, Australia. Available at the Canberra Airport, it's the first luxury EV offered for rent from a mainstream rental company in Australia. Australia's capital offers a small registration discount and no stamp duty for EVs, making it a cheaper and more practical place to locate the country's first rental Tesla. Thrifty's parent company, NRMA, is calling on Australia's other states and territories to remove financial and regulatory barriers to EV technology. Read more at The Motor Report.