New Infiniti M35h: The world’s fastest full hybrid

Infiniti claims the new Infiniti M35h to be the world’s fastest full hybrid after it set impressive standing quarter mile times at  Santa Pod.

We’ve had plenty of reason to take the rise out of the Infiniti range as Infiniti try to gain a foothold in the UK and European markets for their posh Nissans. But one Infiniti we did like the look of is the M35h hybrid.

When Infiniti revealed the M35h last year, we were suitably impressed that they were delivering a hybrid with some half-decent sporting saloon credentials. We liked that the extra 67bhp the electric motor added to the M35 meant a 5.5 second 0-62mph, 40mpg (not at the same time) and emissions of just 162g/km (again, not if you use the performance).

What we really liked is that Infiniti saw fit to price the M35h at almost the same price as the diesel version of the M. Which means you could get some very good economy if you felt so inclined, get some better than half-decent performance when the mood took you, and still emit a lot less of the real nasties from the exhaust pipe – NOx and Particulates – than the diesel version. A real ‘Cake and Eat it’ car.

And now Infiniti has proved that the M35h has properly decent performance by setting standing quarter mile times of 13.9031 seconds at Santa Pod, making the M35h the fastest accelerating full hybrid on sale…in the world. A fact confirmed by the man from Guinness World Records who was in attendance.

Of course, the Infiniti M35h may lose its crown as the world’s fastest full hybrid when the new Lexus GS 450h arrives in 2012 (if we were Lexus we’d make sure), which would rather take the glow off Infiniti’s aim – or at least what we assume is Infiniti’s aim – to offer a posh but sporting alternative to the offerings from Lexus.

From our point of view the Lexus is the more interesting proposition, if for no other reason than Lexus will send us one for a week. Infiniti seem frightened to send their cars out for road tests.

Wonder why?