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2015 Infiniti Q30 Nears Production, Spied Being Benchmarked Against A-Class

A couple of years ago, Infiniti got the bright idea of offering a car for Europeans. It had to be relatively small, efficient and above all it had to offer premium qualities on par with any Audi or BMW. With a little (actually, a lot) of help from Daimler, they put together something called the Q30.
2015 Infiniti Q30 1 photo
Photo: screenshot from Youtube
Taking the form of a large hatchback, this car will almost certainly enter production at the Nissan Sunderland factory within the next few months. Already, the company has announced an extension to the line and a new paint shop to accommodate its first premium car.

Depending on whom you ask, the Q30 is either based on the same Mercedes platform as the A-Class or shares the CMF C/D platform with the European spec Nissan Pulsar and Qashqai. That doesn't really matter as long as we get a nice 5-door and it appears that we will.

During final testing, the Q30 is being benchmarked against the Mercedes A-Class, which can be seen trailing it in a convoy. If Nissan can make a car that's quieter and more refined than the Germans, maybe even sell it cheaper, they might have a winner on their hands.

Formula One racing driver approves

Sebastian Vettel may have moved to Ferrari, but for a couple of years, the F1 ace was involved with the Q30's development. The 27-year old was named Infiniti Director of Performance and his job was to ensure road cars handled better. One of the projects he was involved with from the start was the Q30.

Now, Infiniti have never built a premium hatchback before, so we don't actually know what engines they will use. The most likely unit is a transversely mounted 2-liter turbo from Mercedes, the same 211 hp unit offered by the A-Class.

Beyond that, Nissan has a number of engines it can use, including a twin-turbo 1.6-liter diesel with 160 hp or the 1.6 turbo from the Juke. Let's just hope they don't ruin it with a CVT, otherwise the Vettel association would be kind of ridiculous.

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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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