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By
Edward Niedermeyer on December 2, 2009
When Infiniti’s new M sports sedan hits the market next year, it will be available with an optional tech package that includes a mighty strange feature for a sports sedan. A so-called Eco-pedal will actually resist you overactive right foot, providing feedback that Nissan says is intended to discourage inefficient (read: enjoyable) driving styles. The payoff is supposedly a five to ten percent improvement in efficiency, although convincingly proving causality for those results can’t be easy. After all, if you’re driving for efficiency, you don’t need the gas pedal to be telling you to go easy. Luckily, even if you do pay more for the package that includes this feature, it will be switch-offable. Or ignorable. “The driver can easily disregard the resistance,” Infiniti product planning director John Weiner tells Automotive News [sub], “or turn it off altogether. But if you heed the signal and do as prompted, it can improve fuel economy.” Whatever happened to those “upshift now” lights that were so popular on the dashboards of cars in the 80s?
By
John Horner on November 11, 2009
The New York Times has an update on Infiniti’s Essence concept car. Since the sexy little thing’s March coming out party in Geneva, Essence has been on a tour of Louis Vitton stores in high-end shopping malls for VIP visitors and the commoners. “Guests were invited by the automaker and were typically loyal customers, said Kyle Bazemore, an Infiniti spokesman, in an e-mail message. ‘When we partnered with Louis Vuitton stores, it was half and half — their V.I.P. customers, our customers in the area,’ he said.” But the fascinating part of the article is thrown in at the very end: “It is interesting that the Essence has not appeared at an American auto show. Asked if the concept would return to the auto-show stage in Los Angeles in early December, Mr. Bazemore said, ‘Unfortunately, no. It’s been boxed up and is heading to China for the auto show season there. It should be back for the New York auto show, however.'” Yet more evidence for the ever shrinking role of auto shows, and the ever increasing importance of China’s booming auto market. The Beijing and Shanghai auto shows aren’t until next spring. Sorry, L.A., Infiniti just isn’t that into you, she would rather spend the winter in China.
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