Am I going to write about Infiniti two days in a row on The Morning Dump? To me, that’s preposterous. IPL, GT-R, Nismos… things of that nature. This is good news, however. Maybe great news.
The guy in charge of making us care about Infiniti again is out here talking about seriously upping horsepower, and I am 900% here for it, especially after bagging hard on the brand yesterday. You know who else is overdelivering? Xiaomi. Apple said it was too hard to build a car, and Xiaomi was like: Hold my Snow Beer.
Volkswagen needs money, so it might sell its turbine and engine business to the Porsche family. Wait, you mean the Porsche family that owns a large chunk of Volkswagen? That’s convenient! Less convenient is Akio Toyoda, who did a thing that would have him launched into the grays here. Lemme see if I can do this without setting off my own storm.
‘How Do You Deliver 50% More Horsepower With Reliability?’
It was literally yesterday when I was saying that Infiniti is so boring and bland that I already thought it had a Nissan Rogue derivative. You know what? Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Infiniti is going to do the damn thing.
I am nervous, however. I have been down this road before. Back in 2014, while I was at Jalopnik, the Infiniti brand reached out to see if we wanted to race Sebastian Vettel at Spa in a hopped-up Q50 called the “Eau Rouge,” which featured a GT-R powertrain. None of us were that fast, so we sent contributor and NASCAR driver Parker Kligerman with Mike Spinelli in tow. Please enjoy this official Infiniti photo of Parker doing an excellent white guy overbite:
Also, there’s a Chinese snooker player there as the third racer for some reason.
Technically, Parker was faster around the track than Vettel. Some of this has to do with timing (it started to rain), but they ended up handing Vettel the win because of some silly social media “boost” that he got. You read all about it here, but the bottom line is that Infiniti never built the car, which sucks!
So I am skeptical whenever I hear Infiniti promise performance, even if that used to be one of the brand’s major differentiators. There was that crazy 1,000-horsepower QX80 for SEMA, but I sort of overlooked it given my history.
Maybe that’s my problem. There’s an interview with Nissan Americas product planning chief Ponz Pandikuthira and Americas VP Tiago Castro in Automotive News, and he’s saying all the right things:
The mandate is to deliver “true performance,” not incremental under-the-hood upgrades, Infiniti Americas Vice President Tiago Castro said.
“It’s easy just to do another 20 hp, but how do you deliver 50 percent more horsepower with reliability?” Castro said.
Less about reliability, and more about power, please:
Infiniti has flirted with this idea before. The short-lived Infiniti Performance Line debuted nearly 15 years ago with a 348-hp G coupe that featured a rear spoiler, chrome exhaust tips and red-stitched leather seats.
“IPL launched with the same vision, but then the car had only 18 hp more,” Castro said. “What I don’t want to do is exactly that.”
Don’t get too wild, here, as Castro says later in the article that a GT-R-powered QX80 probably isn’t in the cards (although they did it with the Juke!). It’ll be more like the Track Spec concept, which is somewhat similar to the Armada NISMO. While a 1,000-horsepower QX80 would be fun, I’m not averse to a 600-horsepower version.
Do weird things, build powerful things, make me care again!
Xiaomi Thinks It’ll Deliver 400,000 Vehicles, Which Is A Lot
Doing some quick math here, the Volvo/Geely-backed electric automaker Polestar hasn’t delivered 400,000 EVs in its entire existence. Electronics company/carmaker Xiaomi is going to do 400,000 this year.
Beijing-based Xiaomi has consistently outperformed expectations with its foray into carmaking, going from its first sale early last year to drawing a profit from the venture in the most recent quarter. The EV and artificial intelligence division posted 700 million yuan ($98 million) in profit, breaking even roughly 19 months after the launch of its debut SU7 electric sedan last year.
Helping sales is the company’s new YU7 SUV, which is a super-fast, slinky crossover. While the company has had safety issues, this is the same automaker that made the car Ford CEO Jim Farley didn’t want to give up.
Porsche Might Buy Volkswagen Subsidiary
Volkswagen is running out of easy cash, so the company is looking to sell some subsidiaries. A big one is a company called Everllence, formerly MAN Energy Solutions, but known to all decent people as MAN Diesel & Turbo. Everllence is a strange, meaningless name, and the change is a pretty obvious sign that the company is thinking of spinning it off.
What kind of buyer is there for a company that makes big diesel engines for marine and industrial applications? Manager Magazin has a good guess who might be buying it: The Porsche family. Yes, the same Porsche family that historically owns a big chunk of VW, and it’s all very weird:
The situation is unique: Porsche SE, led by family heads Wolfgang Porsche (82) and Hans Michel Piëch (83), is the dominant shareholder of the Volkswagen Group, holding 53.3 percent of the ordinary shares. The families would thus secure a lucrative stake in their own empire. Furthermore, there are personnel overlaps: As CEO of Porsche SE, Hans Dieter Pötsch (74) represents the bidder in this case – but he also chairs the Volkswagen supervisory board. To avoid violating compliance regulations, the transaction would have to be structured very carefully.
The board of directors of Porsche SE isn’t even in agreement. Lutz Meschke (59) is responsible for the smaller holdings and is considered a staunch advocate of new investments. Johannes Lattwein (52) is responsible for finances . He wants to keep the money together and secure the holding company in case the financial problems at Volkswagen and Porsche AG worsen. The differences and mistrust between the two are becoming increasingly apparent; this is heading for a major clash, according to sources close to the company. Meschke was CFO of Porsche AG until the spring, but lost the position after disputes with CEO Oliver Blume (57). His family allowed him to retain his position as board member responsible for investments at their holding company, Porsche SE.
This is getting exciting!
Akio Toyoda, C’mon
Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda was spotted in full MAGA gear at a NASCAR event in Japan
byu/Prestigious_Net_8356 injapannews
I’ve been specifically not writing about this because I don’t want to set off a whole thing. People have strong feelings about politics, myself included, but our whole thing is that we want to be a place where people with different views can come together and celebrate cars. There’s just not enough common spaces left on the Internet.
We’ve gone so far as to automoderate a bunch of words so we can at least review comments to make sure no one is just here to cause trouble. Are we doing a good job? I don’t know. It’s hard.
What doesn’t help is the Chairman of Toyota, Akio Toyoda, running around a NASCAR event in Japan last weekend (the event seems like it was awesome, btw) wearing Trump/Vance/MAGA gear. As with Elon Musk, he’s totally allowed to do whatever he wants, but it’s not necessarily a great look when a large percentage of your customers and probably many of your employees may have contrary feelings. Just ask Elon Musk.
I also want to warn against entirely projecting your political constructs onto leaders from other countries. It always makes me laugh when people define certain Eastern European politicians as “conservative” and then are shocked to find out that those same politicians are also pro-choice, pro-environment, and pro-labor. This is to say that Toyoda is an extraordinarily wealthy businessperson who seems to have been cozy with late Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, so he’s probably conservative, but I don’t think he has an opinion on, like, Texas redistricting.
There’s not a lot of great reporting on how this happened, but my guess is that the U.S. Ambassador, who was there, gave him the shirt and hat, and he put it on as a gesture of friendship, or sucking up, or whatever. Maybe he special-ordered it himself, I really don’t know.
Either way, I went looking around a bunch of Toyota press accounts that would usually include pictures of the event and found nothing. Clearly, someone at Toyota also realizes this was a questionable decision. I think Automotive News had a good op-ed that sums up my feelings:
Celebrating any active political U.S. leader is not the same as celebrating America — it never has been.
It’s a distinction Toyoda and his advisers would be well served to learn moving forward.
Looking forward to Akio visiting Vermont and wearing a Bernie Bro hat just to throw us all off.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
I need to save the vibes, and there’s one surefire arrow in my quiver I’ve been saving, and it’s “Chattahoochee” by the great Alan Jackson. If this doesn’t improve your mood, then you are broken.
The Big Question
What’s the coolest car that never got built?
Top photo: Infiniti
Chattahoochee is a damn good time. Coolest car that never got built? The Nissan IDx. First time I was disappointed that a concept car never came to fruition.
50% more power with reliability? Sounds good, but is that really what would make Infinitis sell better? I sort of doubt it.
The mauve on that Xiaomi YU7 is nice, if only because it’s unusual. The car itself is sort of handsome, albeit in an obvious Porsche Taycan wagon knockoff sort of way, which is par for the course with many Chinese offerings.
Akio Toyoda in full MAGA gear? How embarrassing!
Speaking of Toyota, my vote for coolest car that never made it to market is their S-FR: https://www.motortrend.com/news/report-toyota-s-fr-small-sports-car-weighs-2160-lb-packs-128-hp
There are so many cool cars that never got built how can you pick just one? But oddly enough coming from me, I think I would pick the Cadillac Sixteen concept from a couple decades back. It was just so completely ridiculous, yet absolutely beautiful too.
The ownership saga of Volkswagen and Porsche is just the most delightful automotive soap opera. Then add in the whole Rolls-Royce\Bentley shenanigans as a subplot. And the whole Porsche almost buy VW but getting bought by them instead madness. You’d need all the popcorn in the world if it was made into a mini-series. Ze Germans putting the fun in dysfunctional.
Coolest car never produced would have to be the Peugeot Quasar… Probably my fav toy car as a kid.
The TVR speed12 would be a good candidate for the coolest car that never got built I think.
Alan Jackson, great singer and also a verbal consent pioneer:
>Well, we fogged up the windows in my old Chevy
>I was willing but she wasn′t ready
>So I settled for a burger and a grape snow cone
>Dropped her off early but I didn’t go home
IMO probably not the smartest idea for Akio to be wearing it, however it did seem like a cheesy bit for the whole Nascar publicity stunt. The guy took a picture in front of an F150 of all things, not even a Tundra. That screams to me “Hey look we’re doing the American Nascar fan stereotype.” I personally have a dig with that as a Diehard fan that doesn’t drive a truck or is not a part of the cult. Talladega Nights, while funny, has wrecked NASCAR Fandom. Too many people have made politics their religion, and it’s always “my side is correct vs. your side is wrong,” no room for nuance. Luckily for Toyota though, they make great compelling products.
I really wish Ford made the Shelby Series 2 concept a reality. Not that I could ever afford one, but it was so cool in person. One of the pictures in my parents’ house is of my dad and I in front of it at the Chicago Auto Show when I was a kid.
How did Talladega Nights affect NASCAR fandom?
The perception, forgot to add that in my rambling.
Ah man… Until I heard it from The Autopian I just assumed the Toyoda photos were AI… why else would he be posing a thumbs up in front of an F-150?
What’s the coolest car that never got built?
Nissan Mid4 II
Probably not the coolest concept, but one that stuck out to me forever ago, the Honda Bulldog
Meant to be an evolution of the City II Turbo, it had futuristic (in 2001) semi-bare seats and a funky squished shape.
The Plymouth Pronto Spyder and Dodge Demon Roadster are two that I would have loved to see.
The 2005 Ford Synus concept lives rent-free in my head.
17 year old me so badly wanted a little diesel stick shift rolling bank vault of my own. The design features of that car really spoke to a teen that, at the time, was horrendously contaminating the rear cargo area and folded seats of his mom’s Pathfinder.
Sorry mom.
Also, of all the PR things Toyota has done, that’s certainly one of them.
The 2012 Jeep Mighty FC concept is my favorite never build but would have been awesome.
This is certainly my favorite, too. I also loved the Nukizer 715 from 2010.
I’ve happened across the concepts on various trails doing pre-EJS photo shoots several times the week before the event. Shocks me every time. Fun to see them in person, and sometimes even wheelin.
oh that one was awesome. Jeep concepts have gotten lame. I would almost sell a kidney for a production version of the Africa concept.
Same! Give me my Jeep Troopy! Looks great in person, too. Just enough space to lay down and additional load capacity.
Yep that is the one biggest complaint I have for my jeep JKU is I cannot lay down in the back to sleep. It is just a few inches too short.
I immediately thought of the Africa concept.
The Suzuki Kizashi should have looked like the concept.
I’m still convinced Toyoda was just doing the Hip Young Japanese Thing and wearing some random clothes with English words on them. It ws just a horrible coincidence.
You know the old saying, “If you give a million seamstresses a million design ideas, eventually one of them will accidentally produce a bunch of MAGA gear.”
Words just as true today as they were last week when Abe Lincoln posted them on Reddit.
“It was all a joke that didn’t work” sounds like good PR spin on this. It seems so over the top, I can’t comprehend that it was done seriously. Most CEOs (not named Elon) are so conservative, they avoid making any overt political statements.
I reserve the right to be wrong though.
The first question that came to my mind was, “Did he lose a bet?”
I’m sure others will have or already have mentioned better coolest cars that never were.
But here’s a random one nobody probably remembers: The Scion Hako Coupe.
it was so weird and looked like it could have been a lot of fun to mess with.
Chrysler ME4-12 was incredibly cool.
Infiniti really doesn’t have any identity right now. They just sell prettier versions of assorted Nissans that, at least in my area, tend to fall into the hands of the Big Altima Energy crowd once they’re making a little money. They are then usually driven in a similar matter and, much like Nissan, anyone with a pulse can get financing.
As a 90s who grew up seeing stuff like the G35 and FX35/45 go toe to toe with Ze Germans and keep up their fall from grace has always bummed me out. My anesthesiologist uncle also had a QX4 back in the day and it just seemed so cool to kid NSane. It had all the gold badging, tinted windows before they were super mainstream, the full roof rack, etc. It just looked the business.
But now? They’ve got 0 brand equity, and if I showed up to something in a current Infiniti no one would bat an eye. Hell, my wife who is very much not an enthusiast didn’t even know Infinitis were luxury cars until I told her and said “I always assumed they were a bargain brand like Kia or Hyundai”. OUCH.
Anyway, if they want to make speed and power their identity I say go for it. There’s room in the market, especially considering it’s not the main focus of any of the other Asian luxury brands. They won’t be able to out numbers game the Germans, but they just might be able to out character them. Apparently they’re making a manual sports sedan to replace the Q50, and if it’s any good I think it’ll sell.
I also think that twin turbo V6 has a lot of potential. Folks have been tuning Red Sport Infinitis for years and Nissan is already selling a Nismo Armada that’s boosted to 460 horsepower/516 pound feet of torque with a factory warranty. That’s similar power to something like an M3, for what it’s worth. Maybe all of this is wishful thinking. I guess we’ll see.
Anyway Akio pulling this seems like a self-own that has the potential to be Elmo/Tesla caliber. Toyota sells so many hybrids that a lot of their customers are environmentally conscious. Those customers are uh…not going to be very happy about this. There! I made a statement about the situation that was fairly neutral.
Infiniti’s story is such an odd one. They started off slightly odd, with the Q45 advertisements that didn’t even show the car. The car was slightly odd with no real front grill and the super cool vining in the badge. Then they grew from quirky to real German fighters by the early oughts. Then they just started sliding in to personalityless obscurity. I don’t fully understand how it all happened. Unless Carlos just didn’t ever give them any support? Sad though.
I would love to buy that silly xB looking suv used in a few years though. That would be awesome.
I am grateful for the thoughtful approach to subject matter and comment moderation. I’ve been getting more into automotive news in the past year mostly as a way to avoid The News. I will never be a “stick to cars” person, and I appreciate that politics are intertwined with every part of our lives, including our cars and roads. But generally speaking, this site is pleasant, which is a rarity on the internet these days.
It is an ongoing tragedy that Nissan never produced the IDx…
Especially the NISMO version.
Spot on. Infiniti could rectify this too!
NO!!!
Infiniti could get a an upscale one, but later, after the Nissan version brings low cost fun performance to the masses.
I think the Eau Rouge is one of the recent sad “never built” for sure. I thought it looked great and obviously it was pretty fast. I even made a joke yesterday about a Rogue Eau Rouge, because that car lives on in my head.
Aaaaaand…
Now it lives in mine.
Thank you.
Maybe the way for Infinity to get 50% more power (and sales) is to just rebadge the Xiaomi pictured as say an FX70? They could just swap the badges and call it a day.
Thank you for covering Akio Toyoda’s fashion decision. I didn’t believe it was real when I saw it on Reddit because my favorite site (The Autopian) hadn’t covered it. That Automotive News op-ed definitely hits the nail on the head.
I saw it in some crappy sub like r/complaints or whatever and was like “these losers are going mad over an ai/photoshop image”, but I had to know. Couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it reported on major outlets.
Exactly. I saw it and my first thought is no CEO is that stupid. Not even the big 3 domestics have dressed like that.
This. When I saw the first image on Reddit I figured it had to be AI, especially with the F-150 in the background. Spent too long looking for confirmation it wasn’t real, only to find quite the opposite. Seems like a really bad decision. But then again I don’t have the name, clout, or money to make really bad decisions and survive.
Second gen Tesla Roadster without the useless thrusters. Would have been a way better use of money than the Cybertruck.
Yeah… true.
Take your pick of Cadillac concepts the past two decades, either the Sixteen or the Elmiraj is my choice.
Ouch, too true.
The Sixteen was my first thought as well, closely followed by the Ciel.
I loved the Elmiraj. At least they made a Hot Wheel of it.