The Infiniti M hybrid driving experience

When Nissan invited me to drive the Infiniti M, powered by its dual clutch controlled Direct Response Hybrid powerplant at its own Grandrive test and development circuit in Japan, I was excited. My excitement was not however, caused by my love of hybrid vehicles.

If the truth be told, I'm very cynical about the "electric power is cleaner than the internal combustion engine" mantra because unless the electricity was generated using wind, solar or nuclear power, you still have to burn at least as much fossil fuel to charge your batteries as you do to run the engine. So lugging around extra batteries and a heavily modified transmission system, then having to run additional control systems to engage and disengage the real engine, means that you are actually adding to the weight of the standard car, which means you'll be burning more fuel, not less, to move it, right?

Well, wrong, apparently. Gone, it seems, are the days of the Prius when we all thought that "hybrid" was Japanese for "awkwardly designed, because we have to fit a huge battery in the boot." Instead, clever engineers and designers the world over have managed to shrink the battery packs to the size of a large briefcase, albeit a pretty heavy one, and so it is with the Infiniti M. It's as curvaceous as the Hollywood starlets that Nissan no doubt hopes will one day be buying it.

But just as importantly, Nissan claims that by doing away with a torque converter and instead using a dual clutch system combined with an electric motor, it has in fact reduced the overall weight of the car. And while it didn't state by how much it's been reduced, any saving in weight means a subsequent saving in fuel.

Plus of course, a hybrid system allows you to recover part of the energy otherwise lost to heat, light and sound when braking, so I accept that overall, a well designed hybrid system has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions. Quite simply, my excitement was due to the fact that this was the first hybrid I'd ever driven, and I wanted to see whether it lived up to the hype.

Inside the cabin there's no mistaking that you're in a luxury saloon, surrounded by pretty much the ideal quantities of leather, wood and chrome to make you feel contentedly smug. The Infiniti M has wooden trim featuring silver polish which has been worked into the grain, giving it a very appealing, unique look. In areas such as the door the ‘silvered' wood blends beautifully into the chrome trim; of course this adds nothing to the performance or comfort levels, and I couldn't help but wonder about the environmental impact of silver mining, but I have to admit it looks great.

Just to remind you that you are sat in a hybrid, the large centre console screen is capable of showing — along with the ubiquitous sat-nav, radio and parking camera displays — a colourful rendition of the current status of the internal combustion and battery power plants. It is, no doubt, valuable information.

But on the single lap of the circuit for which I was given control of the car, the engineer accompanying me kept pointing out how much, or how little charge there was in the battery, how much power was being fed to the battery when I braked, when the real engine was being used to recharge the batteries and how many forest fires I'd started in Finland as a result of accelerating heavily. OK the last bit isn't true but I was concentrating on the circuit ahead of me and found the flashing animation in the corner of my eye more than a little distracting. You can of course, always switch to one of the less irritating displays.

My only other issue with the interior has to be the design of the central speed dial. It's well lit, has an easy to read font, and is, I'm happy to say, a good old fashioned analogue style dial, not some fancy digital readout. So why somebody decided it would be a good idea to surround it with a 20mm wide band of what looks like the rubber from the focus ring of an SLR camera lens is beyond me. The bad news is it caught my attention every time I looked down at the gauges. The good news is that it took my mind off the flashing ‘your battery is discharging at an alarming rate' panel to its left.

Driving the M was to be a very brief affair. With plenty of other traffic on the circuit, I had to wait for five or six minutes before I could proceed from the holding lane. In that time the battery went from around a 65 per cent charge to approximately 40 per cent, probably due to the fact that we had the AC running. As we pulled away, the engineer said, "don't pull away too fast or the V6 engine will turn on." But, wouldn't you know it, I floored the throttle to see if the much quoted "max torque from one rpm" experience applied to hybrids.

A disapproving voice from the passenger seat said, "Now you've started the real engine," in a tone remarkably similar to the one used by my wife when I'm driving quite briskly. I should point out that "REAL™ engine" is of course my own trademarked acronym. It stands for Rugged, Economical And Loud engine. Infiniti's engineers just call it ‘the engine' but I know which I prefer.

I'd love to be able to tell you that the power and throttle response were like nothing I'd ever experienced before but the fact is they were very similar to those in lots of cars I've driven, mostly those with V6 engines of around 3.5-litres capacity which, funnily enough, is exactly what the Infiniti M has. But I suppose if I'm admitting that, then the Infiniti has proved a point. While it was possible to discern the moment the real engine kicked in to supplement the batteries when accelerating, I have to be fair and say I was pushing on very hard to force it to fire up and I was listening carefully to find fault with the transition from the volts to the V6.

In reality it was barely noticeable and I think if you had the radio turned up — or a Japanese engineer sitting next to you shouting, "slow down, half of Scandinavia's alight," then you'd never hear it. Braking in a hybrid is of course just like braking in any other high powered saloon, except that the dashboard lights up with a, "good boy, the people of Finland thank you," message on the centre console.

That it's an attractive and well appointed executive saloon is not in doubt, and even this cynic is inclined to admit that the hybrid performance is the equal of any vehicle with a similar sized regular internal combustion engine. If that means my daughters will be able to breathe easier in years to come, yet still enjoy high spirited motoring and Nordic skiing holidays, then Nissan is on the right track. Right now I'm about 200m ahead of them, pulling away into the distance in a supercharged REAL™ engined V8, but the question is, "For how much longer?"

68bhp

Generated by the 50kW electric motor. It can propel the Infiniti M hybrid all by itself

Coming soon

The Infiniti M hybrid is another product of the newly emerging category of green luxury cars. We can expect an increasing number of luxury vehicles to feature a hybrid option. Ferrari, Porsche, Aston Martin and Rolls-Royce have all announced hybrids are in the works.

Specs & ratings

Model M hybrid

Engine 3.5-litre V6; 50kW electric motor

Transmission Seven-speed auto, RWD

Max power 369bhp @ NA

Max torque 621Nm @ NA

Top speed N/A

0-100kph NA

Price TBC

Plus Luxurious, comfortable

Minus Battery doesn't last long

Rival - Lexus GS 450H

According to Lexus, "the super ultra low emissions-rated GS 450h will provide an unparalleled combination of high performance, luxury-refinement and unexpected fuel efficiency." It can achieve 28mpg, offers extremely low emissions and has 339bhp. The electric motor helps it to reach 0-100kph in 5.2 seconds.

Innovation

The Infiniti M hybrid is powered by the standard engine sitting in the saloon's bay. It's a VQ 3.5-litre V6, with the addition of a 68bhp electric motor and hybrid drive system.

It uses a front-engine rear-wheel drive configuration — with a one-motor, two- clutch system.

The first clutch is installed between the engine and the electric motor and it allows the full decoupling of the V6 when running in electric mode. This helps to reduce mechanical drag and boost the efficiency of the electric motor.