Auto shows are not just the occasion to see new models on display, they’re also a goldmine for information about automaker’s plans. In Detroit this week, INFINITI boss Christian Meunier provided some news regarding the luxury brand’s QX30 small SUV.
The executive confirmed that the model as it currently exists would not be back for a second generation. Introduced in 2017, the model is the fruit of a collaboration with Mercedes-Benz, and is in actuality a Japanese version of the latter company’s GLA.
“(The QX30 is) not a very successful product. We’ll keep selling it for now...but this is not a product that has a future beyond its current life. It will be replaced in the future by an all-Infiniti platform.”
- Christian Meunier, INFINITI
This is also probably significant in regards to the agreement between the two companies, even though both companies recently said that it remains firmly in place. The fact is that seven years lapsed between the time hands were first shaken and the arrival of the QX30 in 2017. A glacial pace, that...
The little crossover was built by Nissan at its Sunderland plant in the UK, which entailed an investment of $300 million USD. The two companies also co-own a factory in Mexico, where the Mercedes-Benz GLB is produced; Mitsubishi will not share an assembly line at that plant, however.
Christian Meunier also mentioned that the QX30’S replacement could benefit from the variable compression technology first used in the 2018 QX50. A smaller version of that model’s 2.0L 4-cylinder is in the works and could serve the future model. It’s likely as well that that model will be partly electric, particularly as the company has promised that all of its models will feature an electric motor by 2021.
We leave you with a fun fact that helps to explain INFINITI’s decision regarding its littlest utility model: Mercedes-Benz currently sells 3 to 4 times as many units of its GLA model as INFINITI does of the QX30.