http://www.autospies.com/news/Infiniti-Essence-coming-in-2010-41691/

The 2009 Geneva motor Show has seen the Nissan luxury brand making waves all over Europe there are not signs that the Japanese automaker is slowing down.
It all started with the unwrapping of the stunning Infiniti Essence Concept, a 2-seater rear-wheel-drive coupe with a turbocharged V6 gasoline hybrid system generating 600hp to match its show-stealing sheet metal.

Then the bombshell was revealed: Infiniti intends to shift its entire lineup to the hybrid system beginning with the M sedan in September of 2010. There are also reports going around that a model derived from the Essence concept will be coming out next year in the European market. Further reports say that Infiniti will give up its gas-electric hybrid setup in the Essence in favor of the diesel-electric hybrid system. Although details about pricing have not yet been released for the model but Nissan said that customers willing to purchase a diesel hybrid would be in the luxury class. Of course, in theory, a diesel-electric setup would be more economical than its gasoline-electric counterpart. There are plans already by Nissan to open a V6 diesel powerplant in its European crossovers in 2010, this could point to the powerplant we can expect in the Essence version.

Nissan / Renault announced this diesel a couple months back.

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2009/01/07/nissan-and-renault-officially-launch-new-diesel-v6/





If my math is right, that power curve shows 235 hp and 330 lb-ft of torque at peak.


Nissan also already has a 3.0l inline 4 cylinder diesel they use in the Patrol SUV which I imagine could be leveraged.

RIP Infiniti!

was there any good news in there?

I think the question does not understand how the industry works.  Luxury brands do not depend on high volume sales, but on profit margins.

The G is fine and is enough, provide they sell enough Ms, FXs and Qx with a high profit margin.  They don't need high volume, you can leave that to Nissan.

I remember Lee Iaccoca saying once that what was killing Chrysler was not having a luxury brand like GM does with Cadillac.  High volume is great, but the cost of staying competitive is high.  We need low volume high margins.  One Caddy sold equals to 100 econoboxes or more.

No, I'm not, but memory may fail.  Let me pick up some quotes (I can't find the exact one, and the book itself is long gone):


(Op-ed in 1988, the book was written in 1984)

So 10 times is not going to cut it.  100 may sound a lot, but I think it's closer to the point.  Also you have to understand that there is an upper limit on how many econoboxes you can sell.  So how many 10k econoboxes you need to get that 1.1 billion gross profit... 

Plus, you have to change the tooling much more frequently too.