“Its design and engineering development has the fingerprints of four-times F1 Champion Sebastian Vettel all over it.”
Premium brand Infiniti will unveil its first-ever compact car at the International Motor Show in Frankfurt in September this year (September 17 to 27, 2015).
Two years after the Infiniti Q30 Concept debuted at the 2013 Frankfurt show, the production version of this segment-spanning compact car will be revealed at the show this year.
Infiniti is in the final stages of preparing the launch. Dynamic testing and ultimate validation is currently taking place across the UK and throughout mainland Europe where development of the vehicle has been completed at the company’s Engineering Centre in Cranfield, in north-east England, since 2014.
The Q30 will go on sale in Europe towards the end of 2015 with other markets to follow subsequently. More news on the Infiniti Q30 active compact will be released closer to the Frankfurt show in September.
The road to production for this much-anticipated car has been rocky though not for what might be expected reasons. Its design and engineering development has the fingerprints of four-times F1 Champion Sebastian Vettel all over it.
When his ‘hands-on’ association with the car was revealed, it was not merely a stroke of marketing genius but the racer’s renowned smarts meant his input would be extremely valuable.
Then Infiniti President Johan de Nysschen announced the car alongside Vettel, who was wearing his Infiniti-Red Bull F1 team shirt for the occasion. Since then the president has headed over to GM to run Cadillac and Vettel has joined the Ferrari F1 team.
After chatting to Vettel, there’s no doubt in the mind of yours truly that he will want to get a turn at the wheel of a Q30 production car to see just how much of his advice was accepted. Sadly, for Infiniti they won’t be able to trumpet his participation in Frankfurt this fall.
Contact the writer at: keith [dot] morgan [at] drivewaybc [dot] ca