Infiniti unveiled a brand-new concept car at the Detroit Auto Show. It's called the Q Inspiration and previews the company's upcoming design language. It's sleek, sexy, and sports a revolutionary engine under the hood. Add in the roomy interior and those cool seats and the future looks bright for the Japanese brand. I could talk about this concept car for days, but there are three cool design features that make this show car unique.

Morphing 3D Grille

The first thing that caught my attention is the big grille up front. While its shape is similar to that seen on production cars, it's significantly larger and notably wider at the bottom. But its main highlight is the mesh. Unlike production models, it doesn't have conventional slats or a honeycomb pattern. The upper section is fully closed, while the remaining area has vertical fins that become shorter toward the center. But this is only visible if you look at the nose up front. Move to the side a bit and the fins disappear. This effect is further enhanced by the fact that the lower section is tucked deep into the frame, making the chrome finish less visible. From certain angles, it looks as if the grille is finished in the same color as the body.

Deeply Carved Headlamps

Next up are the headlamps that don't even look like headlamps. Carved deep into the body and with a thick sheet of metal splitting the already slender cutout in two, it appears as if the concept doesn't even have headlamps, just a couple of stylish crack that light up when needed. The new reflective technology and the very narrow, vertical LED stripes bring them to life when turned on, despite looking like dark holes when not in use. The concept basically removes the headlamps as a plastic cover attached to the body and it's a feature I'd like to see on production cars in the future.

Chrome Reduced to a Minimum

Finally, despite being a luxury car, the Q Inpiration has almost no chrome on the body. With full-size vehicle from Rolls-Royce, Cadillac, and Mercedes featuring a lot of chrome, it's a breath of fresh air in the industry. Sure, chrome is nice here and there, but I no longer believe in the ethos that luxury cars must have a lot of shiny surfaces. This used to be cool in the 1950s and 1960s, but it's not very tasteful in 21st century. Infiniti seems to share this opinion and used chrome on the front grille only. The bumpers, the side skirts, the taillights, and the window frames are clean and neat.

While the Q Inspiration isn't set to go into production, I'm hoping that the company upcoming flagship sedan will get these feature in one form or another. A tasteful car like this could start a new, cool trend of chromeless luxury cars. Now that's something I want to see on the road.

References

Read our full review on the 2018 Infiniti Q Inspiration Concept.

Read more Detroit Auto Show news.

Read more Infiniti news.