the new Infiniti coupe will employ a next-generation B-C-sized platform co-developed by Renault and Nissan that is also destined to form the basis of the next Nissan Tiida and Renault Megane. Taking on almost identical dimensions to that of the Mercedes CLC, the new luxury two-door will be powered by a Mercedes 1.8 liter, four-cylinder CGI turbo

Infiniti has taken the wraps off of its latest concept vehicle, the Etherea, at the Geneva motor show.

The Etherea is a FWD compact sedan coupe (4-seater) with a hybrid drivetrain similar to the Infiniti M35h, sporting the same single electric motor coupled to a twin clutch system design.

Powering the Etherea is a supercharged 2.5 liter, four-cylinder petrol engine with 245 PS (180 kW / 242 bhp) working in concert with an electric motor. Presiding over the transfer of power to the front wheels is a CVT.

The Etherea represents a first for Infiniti, being that it's a front-drive model. Also unique is the rear-hinged back doors and the absence of a B-pillar, all of which say 'concept' and not 'production'. The car measures 4.4 meters long.

The interior is a blend of premium cool and heritage design. A tech-themed dashboard that features dials radiating from the central tachometer is matched with the kimono-like piping on the seats and Inuyarai, vertical strips on the inside door panels, and a cabin trim called Kasane-Washi - a take on the Japanese parchment paper-style craft known as Washi.

Speaking of the concept, Infiniti's General Manager for Exploratory and Advanced Product, Francois Bancon, says:

"Etherea is not a stereotype. It is a little bit borderline. It is an expression of identity and personality. It adds new values, as well as conveying existing ones."

Read more: http://www.worldcarfans.com/11103013...#ixzz1FMu1GRf5

Infiniti Etherea: Doubling Down On Japanese Identity


By Dan Neil

Etherea, as in “ethereal,” the PR bloke helpfully offers. That’s the name of Infiniti’s spectral strangeness of a concept car on the stand at this week’s Geneva auto show. It’s a C-segment, front-drive concept prefiguring an Infiniti of circa 2014, competing against the BMW 1-series and Audi A3. More than that, it’s a drafting board of ideas for a new visual identity.



Exterior design continues to bedevil the Japanese luxury car makers, who cannot seem to carve out some visual and psychic space in a segment defined by the Germans. Whereas the Germans seem to have won on the basis of a kind of brute grandeur – Audi’s grilles are getting so large they should be continued on the next car – the Japanese are still fiddling. Acura’s bucktooth grille, now in retreat, seems to want to gnaw down the nearest sapling. Lexus design language is all over the road, from the stunt-kite design of the LF-A to the cool laxity of the LS460.



Infiniti has worked hardest to build a visual identity all its own and has executed some decent looking cars – the new M, for instance. But Infiniti has several challenges, not the least of which is overlap with the mass-market Nissans. You have to be a pretty accomplished train-spotter to tell a Nissan Maxima from an Infiniti at a glance (the division now has its own design studio at Sugi). And for the past two years, Infiniti has been competing in the European market, utterly dominated by the Germans and unreceptive to Asian newbies. “There’s no point in building a Japanese 3-series,” says Wayne Bruce, Infiniti’s global communications director.
Infiniti’s strategy – embodied in the Etherea – is to double down on distinctively Japanese design, which is to say, to invoke the shapes and textures of traditional Japanese craftsmanship and artisanal aesthetics. We’ve seen some of these already, in the Samurai blade detailing of the grilles and in the Washi (rice paper) texturing of aluminum interior trim.



The Etherea goes all in. And so you have glowering eye and fierce brow of the Etherea’s headlamps, from Kabuki. The fuselage of the car is swept with a long, calligraphic-like brushstroke of a shoulder line. The mirrored arches of the grille are said to resemble a famous bridge in Tokyo, reflected in the water. The purple glow behind the grille is an attempt to recall the imperial color of Japan. The piping on the upholstery is the cording from a kimono.



Does it work? Well, these details are compelling – or at least, the narratives behind the detailing are, assuming you could convert that into something approaching car-buying desire – but the Etherea is a slagheap of over-thought design. Rule one for concept cars: They must look awesome. Seems simple enough.



I also have my doubts about the whole design as nationalism thing. Cars compete internationally, and the cues here are so culturally specific that they can only be explained, not apprehended. Meanwhile, there’s some bad faith at work. The Etherea will eventually be Infiniti’s first front-drive vehicle, and the swept lines are meant to convey the long-hood architecture of a rear-drive vehicle. It’s fraudulent, in other words.
Radical and intellectually ambitious, the Etherea’s successors may lead Infiniti out of the visual identity thicket. But the brand is not there yet.