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Infiniti ETHERIA, Infiniti's concept at this year's Geneva Auto Show is their answer to the compact luxury segment, currently the domain of cars like the Audi A3, BMW 1 series, and Lexus CT 200h.
Nissan vice president Toru Saito summed up in the car in a press release: "ETHEREA is about a new type of luxury for younger buyers. It is not just a smaller version of a typically conservative and traditional luxury car." Let's find out more about the Infiniti concept car for 2011.
The numbers:
Supercharged 2.5l four cylinder engine
242 hp
When describing the ETHERIA it would almost be easier to list what it doesn't have. The styling resembles a coupe far more than most "4 door coupes" yet it manages to provide plenty of rear headroom. It uses suicide rear doors that open like those on an RX-8 or an extended cab pickup, but they're full length allowing easy access to the rear seats. It has a hatchback rear end to give it more usable cargo space, but it's styled to resemble a trunk. The floor of the cab is flat like a minivan's, but it uses bucket seats both front and rear for a maximum of four passengers. It might be called a crossover, but it doesn't have the height normally associated with the term.
The ETHERIA has a hybrid drivetrain similar to the M35h, but the ubiquitous VQ V6 has been replaced by a superchaged inline 4 co-developed with Mercedes Benz. The Infiniti concept car also shares the M's electric/hydraulic power steering and much of its suspension. Details are light on this new powertrain, but you can probably expect to see something like it in future hybrid models across the Infiniti line. Likewise, Nissan has said the HID headlights with eyebrow-like LED running lights and grill will be applied to future models.
While the ETHERIA Infiniti concept car is not a planned for production, it is very likely that we will see something like it slotting in below the FX in Infiniti's lineup. Using the M35's platform would make sense, although the hybrid drivetrain may need to be made an option to keep the price down for this entry-level luxury car.
The car would also fit in well in the European market where the brand faces far fiercer competition from their domestic luxury brands: Here the G35 may be seen like a worthy alternative to the 3-series, but there it's just an also-ran. An ETHERIA-like vehicle would give the brand something that wouldn't go head-to-head with existing models.