Infiniti boss Johan de Nysschen connected the all-too-close dots during the Detroit auto show, explaining that the new Q50—that’s the G37 replacement, remember?—will be offered in the U.S. with a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine designed by Mercedes-Benz.
Expect between 210 and 240 horsepower from the 2.0-liter mill. If there’s even a glimmer of hope that Infiniti will offer the Q50 with a manual transmission in the U.S.—so far, the 3.7-liter V-6 and hybrid exclusively mate to a seven-speed auto—it’ll be in the model with this engine.
A report from Autocar in the UK suggests that Infiniti’s gaping top-shelf hole may soon be plugged by 2016 with a new hybrid sports car along the lines of the well-received Emerg-E and Essence concepts.
I wonder if is more cost effective for them to buy a engine that is already production ready and proven rather than designing and testing a engine from scratch. I have often wondered this looking at audi and BMW products. I wonder if it would have been better if they would have said hey GM we need 3 million LS7’s for our premium cars.
07 audi RS4 420hp probably 15K-20K engine to build + all the other costs associated with it and a LS7 makes what 505 and the R&D would have been paid for by someone else + a aftermarket actually exists for that product… I think the same thing with my W12, sure its neat and super smooth but it just seems unnecessary sometimes. I don’t know if a LS engine could make that power band though… just thinking out loud
BMW is pretty new to turbo vehicles in general… At least in production form. Comparing F1 to production motors is irrelevant, due to the fact that they have very different goals.
