We have some bad news for people who were hoping to park the high-performance Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge on their driveways.
The Nissan GT-R-powered Q50 Eau Rouge super sedan will remain just a prototype, an Infiniti executive revealed. Initially tipped to become a 560hp high-performance model that would compete with the BMW M3 and Mercedes-AMG C63, the Eau Rouge didn’t convince the bosses that it would make economic sense.
“It was originally presented as a prototype but after we evaluated sales numbers, we realised it was not realistic to produce it. It was just too costly. That was it. It is always a matter of balance of cost versus benefit, and we decided to reign in our costs,” Infiniti vice-president Francois Goupil de Bouille told CAR magaine in an exclusive interview.
The Q50 Eau Rouge would have been too expensive to build, since such a performance model would have attracted a limited number of buyers.
The Eau Rouge prototype featured the powertrain from Nissan’s GT-R, a 3.8-liter biturbo V6 delivering 560hp and 442lb-ft (599Nm), sent to all four wheels via the GT-R’s intelligent all-wheel drive system.
But while the Q50 Eau Rouge will not see the light of day, de Bouille admitted that Infiniti could launch a number of key performance models under a sub-brand that would become a rival for Mercedes-AMG, Audi’s Quattro and BMW M.
“We will always challenge the market and its conventions… all things are being considered,” de Bouille said. He also hinted that Infiniti may consider different approaches than its rivals’, such as high-performance diesels or stripped-out low-weight models.
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