Recently revealed at the 2016 Beijing Auto Show was Infiniti’s QX Sport Inspiration concept and it could give us hints as to what the new QX70 midsize CUV could look like.

Originally known as the Infiniti FX, the CUV hasn’t received a full redesign since 2008. The newly dubbed QX70 will be its successor and if it does follow the QX Sport concept design, we could be seeing a CUV that can perform both on and off-road.

Even though it looks like a city orientated vehicle with a coupe like bonnet and forward leaning roofline, Infiniti says the concept was designed with off-road versatility in mind. The new CUV has 9.1 inches of ground clearance, a 1.7 inch increase from the 2015 QX70 and gloss-black recessed steps to help you get in and out of the raised vehicle. Not only does the concept sit higher, the overall length is a bit shorter too.



The interior is swaddled in different types of leathers, both hard and soft, held together with contrast stitching. Copious amounts of black-saddle leather is use to cover the central control stack and other areas and it is used to line the floor and kick plates.

One item of note is the divider between the driver and passenger seat. Infiniti wanted to create something “driver-centric (but) passenger-minded” and that could have been translated into giving each passenger their own personal space.

The total QX70 U.S. sales were up 6.3% in first-quarter 2016 but it still lagged behind the Lexus RX. Infiniti may be able to take the lead if the next generation QX70 is similar to the QX Sport Inspiration concept.

If there's one thing i'm really liking from this its the driver focused center console which is done in a way it doesn't try to be a sports car but has a good mix of sportiness and class. It's a design that should help position them well among the German car makers and even better appeal to the same buyers.

I don't think that's something we'll see come to market on a production model since this is an SUV. Would be kind of weird unless they do it in a way that's very natural and what you'd expect to see in an SUV.

Unless they do it like how it was done on one of the last Civic generations which isn't so bad, instead of being flat the console was angled a bit to the driver. All depends on how they execute it. Clearly they did it here for good reason, what ever that may be.

What about the Q50's interior as an indication of what we'll see in the QX70? TO be honest I wouldn't mind if the interior was a lot like the Q50's, i'm more interested in everything else since having a well rounded package is what i'm really after here

At the very least that will be good but even that look is already outdated to me. If they want to compete in one of the more competitive segments around, then a more modern interior is required. In the sedan segment that interior is a bit easier to forgive and live with.

Just saw pictures of the Q30 concept and if there's a direction they need to follow through with design, it's going to be what we see here. Maybe this is exactly what we're going to see? But unlike the production Q30, we should see better in higher end models like the QX70, QX50, and yes... QX80:

Too bad none of that will be likely to happen till maybe the mid cycle refresh, but till then we'll be stuck with what's seen in the photo you posted and I think most owners will be content with it.