Infiniti Q60 muscle coupe to be dual-hybrid

Showcasing its plan to electrify its entire line-up by 2021, as well as its close engineering ties to the Renault Sport Formula One team, the Project Black S prototype will be unveiled at the Paris Show next week. 

A development of the striking 2017 Q60 Project Black S concept – a car that demonstrated just how tough an Infiniti Q60 coupe could look when taken to an AMG Black Series-style level, and painted matte-grey – this Black S prototype proves the reality of a proper production-ready Infiniti muscle coupe is now one step closer.

At the heart of Project Black S is a world-first dual-hybrid powertrain, developed specifically for road use with the Renault Sport F1 team.

It features three motor generator units (MGU) – a single MGU-K (for ‘Kinetic’) that harvests kinetic energy from braking, and a pair of MGU-H (for ‘Heat’) units, attached to the engine’s twin electric turbochargers. These MGU-H units extract heat energy from the turbo’s exhaust gases , enabling the Black S’s hybrid system to generate electrical power during both braking and acceleration.

The combustion engine this dual hybrid system supports is Nissan-Infiniti’s lauded VR30 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6, which in standard ‘Red Sport’ guise produces 298kW. In the Project Black S, however, Infiniti claims this dual-hybrid powertrain is good for 420kW.

In a further hint at the Q60 Black S’s production future, Infiniti estimates the prototype has a power-to-weight ratio of 235kW per tonne, and a 0-100km/h potential of less than four seconds. That puts Project Black S just ahead of a Mercedes-AMG C63 S Coupe for acceleration.

Infiniti has also collaborated with the Renault Sport F1 team on the Project Black S prototype’s aerodynamic efficiency.

The carbonfibre rear wing, for example, has a similar profile to the ‘Monza’ rear wing (lower downforce for faster circuits) used by the Renault Sport F1 team, and has been validated for road use by the F1 team’s aerodynamicists. The aim was to deliver a finely tuned compromise between high-speed straight-line stability and high-traction cornering.

Infiniti will rip the covers off the Project Black S prototype in Paris on 1 October at 6pm (2 October at 2am AEST).