The very week of luxury brand Infiniti arriving in South Africa, its flagship hybrid sports car met with some misfortune on a run up the hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK. It was meant to be a moment to savour as the new Infiniti concept stormed up the Goodwood hill, with Red Bull F1 racers Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber in attendance. That’s until the range-extender sports car either broke down or ran out of electric juice and had to be carried away on a truck.
Of course the Emerg-E is only an advanced stage concept, making its first public outing as a fully-functioning car, which, in defence of Infiniti, was rather brave of them to haul out an unproven concept at such a public occasion. Infiniti managed to revive the Emerg-E and it did eventually complete the hill climb in the hands of Red Bull F1 pilot Mark Webber.
The Infiniti Emerge-E features a twin-motor hybrid drivetrain with a combined output of 300 kW and 1 000 Nm of torque. A 1.2-litre, 3-cylinder petrol engine works as a range extender matched to batteries. It’s capable of accelerating from standstill to 100 km/h in just four seconds. While the range-extender petrol engine functions in concert with its twin electric motors, the Emerg-E produces a CO2 output of only 55 g/km CO2. The Emerg-E is said to be able to run for 48 km as a pure EV, before the petrol engine kicks in to provide a driving range of 400-plus km.
The Infiniti Emerg-E Concept made its debut at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show and the highly advanced mid-ship sports car shows Infiniti’s intention to produce a bold halo model befitting the brand, as well as provide a fresh expression of Infiniti’s design language. The Emerg-E is also significant for being the first Infiniti that has been developed in Europe. Consider its break down at Goodwood a little snag on the way to a bright electric future…we hope.
