Performance e-Concept from Infiniti for Pebble Beach

TU-Editor

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9th August 2018

Nissan’s premium sub-brand, Infiniti is promising to make a few sparks fly with a new fully electric performance car concept to be unveiled at one of summer’s top auto venues, writes Paul Myles.

It has released a teaser image but few details about the e-concept to be shown at this year’s Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in California except to promise a concept that will show electric cars as “powerful, efficient, and a joy to drive … a physical representation of Infiniti’s electrified performance future”.

Its statement continued: “The concept is the first project to come to fruition under the direction of Karim Habib, Infiniti’s new executive design director, and his teams in Japan, UK and US. The striking concept will provide a window into the brand’s desire to deliver driving enjoyment and thrilling performance from electrified powertrains.

At last year’s Pebble Beach event, the automaker revealed its Prototype 9, a retro e-roadster inspired by open-wheel grand prix cars of the 1940s. It featured an electric motor similar to that used in the second-generation Nissan Leaf with 148bhp and 2633ft-lbs of torque enough to propel it to a claimed 0-62mph sprint of 5.5 seconds.

Much of that performance potential was thanks to a miniscule 890kgs weight despite its old-school leaf-sprung steel ladder chassis clad by hand-crafted steel body panels.