The 2025 Infiniti QX80 Ditches V8 and Picks Up Concept Styling

by Chris Teague

Published: March 21st, 2024

the 2025 infiniti qx80 ditches v8 and picks up concept styling

Concept vehicles don’t often make it to production unchanged, but the new Infiniti QX80 looks an awful lot like the QX Monograph concept the automaker showed late last year. The new SUV was recently revealed with boxier styling, more interior space, and an updated interior design with more tech and high-end materials.

Infiniti ditched the outgoing QX80’s V8 in favor of a twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6. The new setup produces 450 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque, and sends it to the rear or all four wheels through a nine-speed automatic transmission. Optional air suspension can raise and lower the SUV by 1.2 inches on the highway to conserve fuel and up to 2.8 inches when parked for easier entry and exit.

The 2025 QX80 comes with dual 1.3-inch displays and a smaller third display for climate and other controls. It gets neat features like a new biometric cooling system that can detect when second-row passengers are feeling hot and direct air toward them. An available Klipsch reference Premiere stereo brings 24 speakers and 1,200 watts of power. Speakers in the front headrests let front passengers hear alerts from the navigation system or take a phone call without disturbing people in the back seats.

The new QX80 goes on sale this summer. Pricing for the Pure RWD trim starts at $84,445 after a surprisingly steep $1,995 destination charge. The Luxe RWD trim starts at $91,545, and adding four-wheel drive to either trim costs $3,100. Stepping up to the Sensory trim brings the price tag to $102,640, and the range-topping Autograph trim costs $112,590. The top two trims come standard with four-wheel drive.

[Image: Infiniti]

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Chris Teague

Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.

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Joe65688619 on Mar 22, 2024

I have a 2018 QX 80 (purchased new for $58K). Before that a QX56. Both did some pretty heavy duty towing and family hauling and no mechanical issues (the QX80 had some electrical gremlins that were fixed under warranty). Aside from the Armada, they were amongst the cheapest body-on-frame SUVs with towing capacity. I can't imagine they'll get the premium they are asking with the pricing, esp on the top trim lines.

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Alan on Mar 22, 2024

I'll wait for a Patrol Ti-L or even Ti. I like the engine, but I wonder what efficiencies has be gained? Maybe this engine in a hybrid setup would give stonking performance and better FE.

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Recent Comments

Kmars2009 I rented one last fall while visiting Ohio. Not a bad car...but not a great car either. I think it needs a new version. But CUVs are King... unfortunately!
Ajla Remember when Cadillac introduced an entirely new V8 and proceeded to install it in only 800 cars before cancelling everything?
Bouzouki Cadillac (aka GM!!) made so many mistakes over the past 40 years, right up to today, one could make a MBA course of it. Others have alluded to them, there is not enough room for me to recite them in a flowing, cohesive manner.Cadillac today is literally a tarted-up Chevrolet. They are nice cars, and the "aura" of the Cadillac name still works on several (mostly female) consumers who are not car enthusiasts.The CT4 and CT5 offer superlative ride and handling, and even performance--but, it is wrapped in sheet metal that (at least I think) looks awful, with (still) sub-par interiors. They are niche cars. They are the last gasp of the Alpha platform--which I have been told by people close to it, was meant to be a Pontiac "BMW 3-series". The bankruptcy killed Pontiac, but the Alpha had been mostly engineered, so it was "Cadillac-ized" with the new "edgy" CTS styling.Most Cadillacs sold are crossovers. The most profitable "Cadillac" is the Escalade (note that GM never jack up the name on THAT!).The question posed here is rather irrelevant. NO ONE has "a blank check", because GM (any company or corporation) does not have bottomless resources.Better styling, and superlative "performance" (by that, I mean being among the best in noise, harshness, handling, performance, reliablity, quality) would cost a lot of money.Post-bankruptcy GM actually tried. No one here mentioned GM's effort to do just that: the "Omega" platform, aka CT6.The (horribly misnamed) CT6 was actually a credible Mercedes/Lexus competitor. I'm sure it cost GM a fortune to develop (the platform was unique, not shared with any other car. The top-of-the-line ORIGINAL Blackwing V8 was also unique, expensive, and ultimately...very few were sold. All of this is a LOT of money).I used to know the sales numbers, and my sense was the CT6 sold about HALF the units GM projected. More importantly, it sold about half to two thirds the volume of the S-Class (which cost a lot more in 201x)Many of your fixed cost are predicated on volume. One way to improve your business case (if the right people want to get the Green Light) is to inflate your projected volumes. This lowers the unit cost for seats, mufflers, control arms, etc, and makes the vehicle more profitable--on paper.Suppliers tool up to make the number of parts the carmaker projects. However, if the volume is less than expected, the automaker has to make up the difference.So, unfortunately, not only was the CT6 an expensive car to build, but Cadillac's weak "brand equity" limited how much GM could charge (and these were still pricey cars in 2016-18, a "base" car was ).Other than the name, the "Omega" could have marked the starting point for Cadillac to once again be the standard of the world. Other than the awful name (Fleetwood, Elegante, Paramount, even ParAMOUR would be better), and offering the basest car with a FOUR cylinder turbo on the base car (incredibly moronic!), it was very good car and a CREDIBLE Mercedes S-Class/Lexus LS400 alternative. While I cannot know if the novel aluminum body was worth the cost (very expensive and complex to build), the bragging rights were legit--a LARGE car that was lighter, but had good body rigidity. No surprise, the interior was not the best, but the gap with the big boys was as close as GM has done in the luxury sphere.Mary Barra decided that profits today and tomorrow were more important than gambling on profits in 2025 and later. Having sunk a TON of money, and even done a mid-cycle enhancement, complete with the new Blackwing engine (which copied BMW with the twin turbos nestled in the "V"!), in fall 2018 GM announced it was discontinuing the car, and closing the assembly plant it was built in. (And so you know, building different platforms on the same line is very challenging and considerably less efficient in terms of capital and labor costs than the same platform, or better yet, the same model).So now, GM is anticipating that, as the car market "goes electric" (if you can call it that--more like the Federal Government and EU and even China PUSHING electric cars), they can make electric Cadillacs that are "prestige". The Cadillac Celestique is the opening salvo--$340,000. We will see how it works out.
Lynn Joiner Lynn JoinerJust put 2,000 miles on a Chevy Malibu rental from Budget, touring around AZ, UT, CO for a month. Ran fine, no problems at all, little 1.7L 4-cylinder just sipped fuel, and the trunk held our large suitcases easily. Yeah, I hated looking up at all the huge FWD trucks blowing by, but the Malibu easily kept up on the 80 mph Interstate in Utah. I expect a new one would be about a third the cost of the big guys. It won't tow your horse trailer, but it'll get you to the store. Why kill it?
Lynn Joiner Just put 2,000 miles on a Chevy Malibu rental from Budget, touring around AZ, UT, CO for a month. Ran fine, no problems at all, little 1.7L 4-cylinder just sipped fuel, and the trunk held our large suitcases easily. Yeah, I hated looking up at all the huge FWD trucks blowing by, but the Malibu easily kept up on the 80 mph Interstate in Utah. I expect a new one would be about a third the cost of the big guys. It won't tow your horse trailer, but it'll get you to the store. Why kill it?