All New Infinitis in 2021 Will Be Hybrids or EVs
Another day, another EV pledge from an international automaker.
Every new Infiniti model to arrive in 2021 or beyond will be either hybridized or fully electric, according to a statement by Hiroto Saikawa, Chief Executive Officer of Nissan, Infiniti's parent company. “We are going to make Infiniti the premium and highly electrified brand,” stated the exec to Reuters, at the Automotive News World Congress on Tuesday.
This announcement follows the reveal of Infiniti's Q Inspiration concept car, which is used in part to promote the brand's VC-Turbo variable compression engine. The 2019 QX50 will be the first vehicle offered with this pioneering power plant, though there is not yet any information on when other Infiniti models will ship with the VC-Turbo engine.
It may not be unfair to speculate that this engine could be the centerpiece of the company's hybrids in 2021.
The re-engineered Nissan Leaf entered production last month, which should prepare the company for near-future mass production of electric vehicles.
Other automakers are making grandiose pledges to expand their electric vehicle offerings in a similar time frame. General Motors promised to have 20 EVs on the market by 2023, and Ford called its bet this week, upping the ante with a promise of 40 available electric vehicles by 2022. Regardless of which company reaches its targets first, what matters most is moving product, and with 30 million U.S. consumers' mind open to making an EV their next vehicle, aggressive moves into the market may be beneficial to the early birds.