Though the writing was on the wall as early as 10 months ago, it is now official: the Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge is dead.
Based on an Infiniti Q50 sedan, the Eau Rouge would have been powered by the hair-melting 560-horse twin-turbo V6 from the Nissan GT-R, underpinned by its unflappable all-wheel-drive system, and served as a halo car for the luxury brand.
However, in an interview with Car magazine at the recent Frankfurt Motor Show, Infiniti vice-president Francois Goupil de Bouille corroborated what we had assumed for months. “After we evaluated sales numbers, we realized it was not realistic to produce it. It was just too costly. That was it.”
However, de Bouille left the possibility of future Infiniti performance models open. He did not confirm whether the rumors of an even higher-end GT-R-powered sedan — along the lines of an Aston Martin or Lamborghini Estoque instead of a BMW M3 or Mercedes AMG C63 rival — were of substance.
Given Nissan’s penchant for crossovers these days, however, it may not be surprising if they build an Eau Rogue instead. After all, they’ve already GT-R-ified the Juke.
Leave a Reply