Infiniti Prototype 10: a preview of an electrified future

Infiniti announces that all its new models will be electrified from 2021 onwards. And it does so by presenting the Prototype 10 at Pebble Beach, a window into the brand’s future in terms of technology and design.

Not very original in its name, but plenty in its design. The Infiniti Prototype 10 is presented at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance as the successor to last year’s Prototype 9. It features lines that hint at what the Japanese brand has in store for the future.

Infiniti is also committed to electrification. A manufacturer that doesn’t embrace it will have no future in the medium term, in the industry renewal that is coming our way. And with this prototype, Infiniti wants to make it clear that it is working on this technology, so that all its models are electrified from 2021 onwards. This includes pure electric vehicles, and plug-in hybrid models. And there will be everything: sports cars, saloons and even SUVs.

A futuristic electric sports car with a certain retro feel

Whether some of the design features of this spectacular open-top single-seater will make it into a future production model is another matter. Difficult… Clearly inspired by racing vehicles, the Infinity Prototype 10 was designed at the brand’s Design Centre in the United Kingdom. Though under direct supervision from Japan via digital means. It was hand-built in San Diego, California.

What is rather curious –almost to the point of sounding like a “joke”– is that, in more than 13 pages of information in the press kit for the Infiniti Prototype 10, not a single piece of data about the electric propulsion system is revealed. Statements of all kinds, an ode to design and the word “electrification” repeated in every paragraph. But the only thing they say on the subject is that the Prototype 10 has “a powerful electric motor and a large-capacity battery”. Could it be that they don’t want to give clues to the competition?