It seems that Infiniti’s freshly announced Q30 won’t be reaching American shores. At least, not with a Q30 badge on the back. Nissan has just announced that the North America Q30 hatch will be sold as the QX30, and the higher-riding QX30 crossover will be sold as the QX30 AWD.
If you are wondering why in the hell Nissan would do such a strange thing, it’s because they want to sell cars, rather than have them sit on lots. It’s a very simple idea, and one that Nissan has already had great success with thanks to the Juke. Basically, if you take any wagon or hatchback that has a slightly higher ride height, you can call it a crossover and people will buy it hand over fist. If it’s a “hatchback” however, they will avoid it like the plague.
So this is why we have two different QX30s where the rest of the world will have a Q30 and a QX30. Isn’t economics and sales tactics fun?
Along with the announcement that we are getting a QX30 and a QX30 AWD, Infiniti has also announced a sportier QX30S will be part of the lineup. This lower, more aggressively designed version will be for the performance enthusiast that wants a hit hatch that is named like a crossover.
All models will be powered by a 2.0-liter turbocharged engine with 208 horsepower, and the new models should be available sometime in the middle of next year.
