New Infiniti Q50 starts at £27,950 for the Q50 2.2d

The new Infiniti Q50 – the car that was the Infiniti G – will cost from £27,950 for the 2.2 litre diesel, rising to £40,000 for the Q50 hybrid.

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Infiniti are hanging their future sales on a name change that sounds like a James Bond reference – with all Infiniti models now getting the ‘Q’ prefix – and Sebastian Vettel’s input and endorsement of the brand – he’s Infiniti’s Director of Performance (well, there’s a price to pay for Infiniti’s Red Bull sponsorship).

The first outing for Infiniti ‘Q’ in the UK is the new Infiniti Q50, which gets a four cylinder 2.2 litre turbo diesel as its entry-level, and it looks quite promising with 168bhp and 295lb/ft of torque and emissions of 115g/km, which should mean official economy around 65mpg.

Standard features on the Q50 2.2d include Infiniti inTouch (so you can Tweet and Like on the go), Infiniti Drive Mode Selector, Stop-Start, rear view camera, Climate, 17″ alloys, Voice and Bluetooth. Starting price is £27,950.

Perhaps more interesting is the Q50 Hybrid which gets a 3.5 litre V6 with a combined 359bhp, enough to get the Q50 to 62mph in an appealing 5.3 seconds and costs from £40,000.

Apart from hanging their sales on Q and Vettel, Infiniti are starting to trumpet themselves as an alternative to the nine out of ten cars in the sector being from Germany, and it’s not a bad shout – it’s good to have a different take.

The trouble is, if you compare the Q50 2.2D with the entry-level 320d SE – within a few hundred pounds in price – the BMW offers more power and better performance, and if you compare the Q50 hybrid to a similarly powerful 3 Series – like the 330d xDrive SE – the Beemer is offering as much performance, 4WD, lower emissions and better economy for £5k less.

Still, different can be better.

Infiniti say they’ll reveal full specifications, options and prices for the Q50 lineup next week.