We haven’t heard much about the Nissan GT-R powered Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge lately and it appears there’s a pretty good reason why – it’s dead.
This news didn’t come much to our surprise since we’d already heard rumors about its demise since last year. During a recent interview with CAR magazine at the Frankfurt motor show, Infiniti vice-president Francois Goupil de Bouille confirmed that the Q50 Eau Rouge has been shelved because it was too expensive to produce, given its modest anticipated take-up.
“It was originally presented as a prototype but after we evaluated sales numbers, we realised it was not realistic to produce it, it was just too costly. That was it. It is always a matter of balance of cost versus benefit, and we decided to reign in our costs.” said de Bouille.
Originally introduced as a concept at the 2014 North American International Auto Show, the Q50 Eau Rouge garnered a lot of attention from enthusiasts due to its Nissan’s GT-R sourced 3.8-litre bi-turbo V6 engine that develops an exhilarating 560hp, with engine torque measured at 600Nm, all handled by the GT-R’s intelligent all-wheel drivetrain. The reaction led the company to build several prototypes and consider a production variant but that’s obviously not going to happen now. How sad.
