Infiniti reveals new details of electric performance concept

Infiniti has part-revealed its upcoming single-seat, electric performance concept through pictures that give out some details of its cabin. After the retro race-inspired Prototype 9 concept of last year, Infiniti is showing its future of electrified performance at Pebble Beach in California this year.

The concept features an unspecified electrified powertrain and is expected to be the performance car that was tipped for reveal this year by design boss Alfonso Albaisa at last year’s Pebble Beach. The brand has revealed that the concept will “bridge the divide between new and old”, so is expected to be another retro-inspired car like the aforementioned Prototype 9. No other details have been revealed about the car, other than it was designed by executive design director Karim Habib, who moved to Infiniti last year after a six-year tenure at BMW.

A preview sketch shows the car’s cabin from above, revealing that it’ll be a stripped-back, single-seat speedster, with the area where a passenger seat should be covered by a sculpted panel of bodywork beneath a large V-shaped vent. The placement of these vents behind the driver suggests the car's engine sits behind – a first for any Infiniti.

A four-point harness in the driver’s seat suggests that the car will be race-inspired, track-friendly and more hardcore than the brand’s current line-up of plush, road-focused cars.

There’s no word on whether the car will make production or not, but given its remoteness from the cars the brand currently produces, as well as Infiniti’s description of the car as a "physical representation of Infiniti’s electrified performance future", it’s not expected to preview any upcoming sports car from the brand.

Along with the announcement, Infiniti revealed that it will be an electrified brand from 2021, following the industry trend of ditching fossil-fuel-only cars ahead of international bans on petrol- and diesel-only cars in the coming decades.