Infiniti Q45 is the first of Nissan’s luxury automobile lineup under the Infiniti brand introduced in 1989. It marked the Japanese auto manufacturer’s major entry into the luxury car market after its success with compact cars in the 1970s. Challenging the typical luxury car designs that relied on common features such as a large front grill and wooden interior panels, this was a design that challenged the functional beauty of a personal luxury car. The Q45 communicated luxury through new means such as the Japanese lacquer-finished (urushi) interior panels and the Japanese cloisonné (shippo-yaki) front emblem. The car gained attention for its unconventional grill-less front face design, unusual for luxury cars of that time. Shunji Yamanaka left Nissan and became an independent designer after completing the Q45 project. The car has won the Japanese Good Design Award.

MATERIAL: Steel, Aluminum, Glass
DIMENSION: 5090 x 1825 x 1430mm
PROJECT STARTED: December 1985 / COMPLETED: January 1989 CLIENT: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.