An Ingenious Solution to the Nearly Impossible Another Major World-First for INFINITI: You Can Have Top Performance and Class-Leading Efficiency, Too

Christian Meunier, Division Vice President, Global Marketing and Sales Operations, INFINITI Motor Company

It’s not every day one achieves a true “world’s first” in the ever-dynamic and disruptive auto industry, but I’m very proud that INFINITI has indeed achieved an auto industry first and not the least: After 20 years of pioneering research and more than 300 patents, INFINITI has reinvented the gasoline engine. Quite simply, our all-new VC-Turbo changes everything.

Up until now, despite decades of incremental, evolutionary improvements to internal combustion engines, performance and efficiency were still at relative odds with one another. Now, thanks to the efforts of our engineers, who refused to take no for an answer, the INFINITI VC-Turbo represents yet another world-first innovation for our company: a production-ready variable compression ratio engine.

Launching in the all-new QX50, which goes on sale this year, the VC-Turbo will enhance our portfolio and growth. I’ll spare you a geeky, tech-heavy deep-dive, but suffice it to say that VC-Turbo offers customers an engine that is lighter and cleaner than ever before— and also higher performing. It’s the Beauty and the Beast of motoring, the best of both worlds. Many said it was not possible, but thanks to our engineers, it is.

It’s a revolutionary technology on advanced combustion and the perfect bridge towards a more electric powered future

Most industry breakthroughs today are in software, supporting new technologies like ride hailing and autonomy. While we could not have achieved variable compression ratio without the power of massive computing (in the engineering and manufacturing process), this is, at its heart, a mechanical breakthrough. Motor Trend likened it to a Swiss watch: The driver experiences smooth and seamless performance, while beneath the hood, the engine is performing an intricate mechanical ballet.

As Car and Driver’s former technical editor and editor-in-chief Csaba Csere recently wrote, “The new 2019 INFINITI QX50…will be powered by a technically fascinating engine that promises to improve its fuel efficiency by about 10 to 15 percent compared to the best of its competitors, while also delivering better performance.” 

Nelson Ireson, Automobile Magazine said after driving the prototype at our facility in Arizona; “My overall takeaway from a day with the prototype was this: the VC-Turbo is a very, very special engine, significant in a way no other combustion engine has been in decades. But it’s also completely normal, with no rough edges, hairy temperament, or jagged transitions between modes or functions. It’s a fully baked, ready-to-rock answer to a question the industry has been asking for close to a century. It’s simply brilliant”.

Automotive News’ Richard Truett also praised VC-Turbo: “This engine could go down as one of the most loved ever made by Nissan. It excites the senses with great sounds. It delights with impressive performance. And it should sip fuel. “

The UK’s tabloid, The Sun reported; “INFINITI QX50 is the car that could actually kill diesel forever – and it’s NOT an electric or hybrid.”

The VC-Turbo is our latest and perhaps greatest example of INFINITI’s commitment to ingenuity. From design, manufacturing, sales and service, we are committed to delivering customer benefits—in this case, the power of a V6 and the fuel savings and efficiency of a 4-cylinder engine, in every investment we make in cutting-edge technologies.

Since the INFINITI brand launched in 1989, we are proud to embrace a culture of entrepreneurship that has led us to myriad other world-firsts, including hydraulic active suspension, predictive forward collision warning, drive-by-wire Direct Adaptive Steering, and active lane control. We want every driver to feel empowered by our company’s commitment to excellence and innovation.