Road Test – Infiniti Q50S Hybrid
I’m in the Queue
Hybrid vehicles have not
really taken off in South
Africa, for good reason.
You’re paying a lot of
money for relatively little
car, just to show your
commitment to the
environment. And therein
lies the rub because
with the efficiency
improvement of the
internal combustion
engine, there’s very
little difference in fuel
consumption. So what’s
the solution?
W
ell, the Infiniti Q50
S hybrid is a bloody
good start. This is
a car that has been designed
to impress, and is a truly drive
by wire experience. The car is a literal
smorgasbord of electric gizmos, both seen
and unseen. Unseen are the batteries,
sensors, electric motors and solenoids,
whilst the seen are the interior information
screens, and the felt are the electronic
tokoloshe, which decide how you are going
to drive the car. But a call to the n’anga
(witch doctor) may help.
The Q50 is a worthy successor to the G35
hybrid, and is a luxury sedan delivering
high class comfort for a remarkably
competitive price. It is an unassuming
vehicle, with only the occupants knowing
that they are in a high-tech wonder. For
example, if you are on the freeway, you
can keep the vehicle at 120 km/hour,
and the electric motor takes over, with
only the hint of road noise cutting into
the eerily quiet cabin. Whilst things such
as cruise control, speed limiter, stop
start, hill start assist, rear view camera,
rain sensing wipers, keyless entry, and
safety systems such as vehicle dynamic
control, tyre pressure warning and brake
assist, may not raise an eyebrow from
your fellow motorists, a distinct eye
widening may be elicited if they knew that
➲ The first production model of the Infiniti
Q50, the all-new premium sports sedan, rolled
off the assembly line at the Tochigi production
plant in May 2013. Johan de Nysschen and
Carlos Ghosn were the proud parents
your car was also equipped with sports
suspension, sports brakes, a regenerative
braking system, active lane control, and
particularly direct adaptive steering.
The Direct Adaptive Steering (DAS) ‘steer
by wire’ technology has previously only
been seen on the latest jet planes. DAS
provides the driver with the ability to
adjust both the steering’s response and
weight to suit personal preferences and
type of driving, and integral with DAS is
the previously mentioned Active Lane
Control which reduces the amount of driver
adjustments needed to stay in the chosen
lane on motorways.
And when the guys say that this hybrid is
a performance hybrid, they are serious.
It is fitted with a 3.5-litre V6 engine capable
of delivering 0-100km/h acceleration
in 5.1 seconds. Not that I tried this,
because I was more interested in the fuel
consumption. When the car was delivered
to me, the fuel gauge showed just above
| words in action
74
three-quarter, and I did some 400km, and
when the car was returned the gauge
showed about a third and the on-board
computer indicated that I still had 380km
left! So the anecdotal evidence of guys
getting over 900km on a tank is probably
true. And if you want to personalise the
car there are many option packs (over and
above the Welcome Pack and Steering
Pack that come as standard), such as
the Multimedia Pack, Visibility Pack, and
Safety Shield Pack. These packs are not
cheap but also not that expensive, if one
considers that the basic Q50S Hybrid
comes in at R559 000 – a lot o f car for not
so much money.
november 2014
My only quibble is the size of the
boot, but it is a hybrid.