LA 2015: Infiniti QX30 brings the sibling rivalry

Infiniti launched the Q30 ‘premium’ compact at the Frankfurt Motor Show. A key differentiator from its rivals was that it featured crossover design cues, including plastic cladding around the wheelarches and a raised ride height.

However, this seems a little incongruous now we’ve seen its crossover sibling, the QX30, launched in LA. The QX30 gains extra cladding on the rockers, more overtly rugged plastic on the lower mask, and roof rails in addition to a further raise in ride height over its hatchback sibling.

But the visual effect of the design treatment is that it doesn’t really differentiate the cars from one another as much as we’d expected, effectively pitching the Q30 and QX30 against one another for the same, or at least very similar, customers.

There’s certainly less differentiation than displayed by the Mercedes A-Class and GLA which share the platform on which the Q30 and QX30 are based. We’re interested to see what the uptake is on both models, and exactly which nuanced shade of crossover hits the spot.