At last year’s Geneva Motor Show, Infiniti showed us it does indeed have a sense of humor and dropped the powertrain from the 560 horsepower Nissan GT-R into the Infiniti Q50 sedan, creating the Q50 ‘Eau Rouge’. The working test prototype looked ready for the dealership floor, leading some to believe the four-door GT-R was actually going to happen.
That was until Cadillac president Johan de Nysschen shared a rumor he heard about his former employer on his Facebook page. According to him, Infiniti doesn’t have the courage to produce a sports sedan or coupe, and placed most of the blame on Infiniti vice president Noboru Tateishi.
Via Boldride:
“I heard a rumor that Noboru Tateishi is going to cop-out and shelve the Eau Rouge project now that I’m not there to pressure him. Tell any Cadillac or Audi engineer ‘build me a 560hp sports sedan’ and you have to reign them in. At Infiniti, it seems easier to push water uphill. More enthusiasm for ‘driver’s aids’, apparently, than ‘driver’s cars’, in some quarters, it would seem.”
As you probably heard, Cadillac recently unveiled the 2016 ATS-V and CTS-V, two exciting, high performance cars intended to appease enthusiasts and get people excited about the brand. de Nysschen was pulling for such performance products while at Infinti, saying the brand deserves the Q50 Eau Rouge, or a product like it, and that the Nissan fans are crying out for it.
“I’m trying to help my old team by provoking,” de Nysshcen said. “They really want, need and deserve that car. But one guy is a bottleneck.”
In de Nysschen’s case, it’s probably good Infiniti has decided to not produce any performance cars, as his all-new V-Series lineup will have less competition when they reach dealerships later this year. But we’re happy to see he’s the kind of guy to give his old team a push when they need it.
Comments
I think this guy need to focus 100% of his energy on his job at Cadillac, and stop worrying about, and bad mouthing his former employers
I agree he seems to be a 1 in a 100 exec who says pretty much what’s on his mind, it’s refreshing in a way to be up to date with his thoughts but there is a part of me thinking how is this gong on in such a big corporation like GM, I don’t mind him talking as long as he keeps cadillac on the rise
I don’t see anything wrong keeping tabs on the competition. The competition encourages you to have a stronger brand. If you ignore the competition, then how can you become better competitively.
It would be nice for Infiniti to produce a competitor to the V models but it just goes to show that Infiniti has no balls. They rather have Nissan be a better brand than them and that is just plain sad. They have some fine, maybe very good, automobiles. They are short from breathtaking. Infiniti needs a halo car bad. Lexus and Acura are working on releasing halo cars so maybe Infiniti will have sense to produce one themselves in the future.
Well you need to know what is going on and if you have better plans call them out.
Quoting a comment someone said on his ( De Ny’s ) facebook page , about another party , then placing the blame on his former Vice President and that this person doesn’t have the courage ????? De Ny’s airing this comment to the world is not professional management talking . I’m appalled , this is totally unacceptable and while I agree somewhat with AUTOPAL , frankly were I in a senior management position with GM , he would be fired forthwith !!
It’s Johan’s provocation to be sure.
The Eau Rouge range could be so much more.
It’s not like Infiniti doesn’t have the means and parts
to engineer a car that can stir the heart.
This kook will eat his words one day. Infiniti will release something better than a 4 door sedan like the Catarac ATS. He’s the ass that said only a few years ago that EVs will never be produced by the Germans. Well, looky here, asshat deNysschen, all your German buddies are releasing EVs left and right. Working for GM is nothing to be proud of. The biggest maker of junk in the world is their claim to fame.
He is an asshat working for the worst car company in the world. Who cares what he says?
This has more to do with Cadillac promoting its own “we’re not just for old people, we have sports cars too now” thing than it does with Infiniti. All this guy’s doing is using this as a way to get stupid headlines to promote Caddy.
I thought they already were.
Johan de Nysschen is just a high priced prostitute, in the last four years he jumped from Audi to Infiniti, and now to Cadillac. I am sure that if “Ferrari” calls, he will leave without hesitation.
Bad mouthing a former employer by an executive is just childish and unprofessional, his reputation will haunt him later.
He’s just an arrogant ass riding on the coat tails of Audi’s previous success. Anybody at Audi at the time, with VW’s massive investment in products, would have been successful. So far, all I have seen, is him trying to create a carbon copy of Audi at Cadillac. Nothing creative or groundbreaking on his part whatsoever.