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The QX60 Monograph concept is a thinly veiled look at Infiniti's next SUV

This technically isn't the new Infiniti QX60 crossover, but it's really, really close.

Steven Ewing Former managing editor
Steven Ewing spent his childhood reading car magazines, making his career as an automotive journalist an absolute dream job. After getting his foot in the door at Automobile while he was still a teenager, Ewing found homes on the mastheads at Winding Road magazine, Autoblog and Motor1.com before joining the CNET team in 2018. He has also served on the World Car Awards jury. Ewing grew up ingrained in the car culture of Detroit -- the Motor City -- before eventually moving to Los Angeles. In his free time, Ewing loves to cook, binge trash TV and play the drums.
Steven Ewing
2 min read
Infiniti QX60 Monograph
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Infiniti QX60 Monograph

You're basically looking at the new Infiniti QX60.

Infiniti

Sometimes concept cars are wild, futuristic hot takes, designed to exhibit the outer limits of what's technically possible in the automotive world. Other times, however, concepts give us a clear look at an upcoming production car. The new Infiniti QX60 Monograph is definitely the latter.

Making its debut Thursday, the QX60 Monograph concept clearly previews next-generation QX60 crossover, due in 2021. The company isn't offering anything in the way of mechanical or powertrain details right now -- this concept doesn't even have an interior, weirdly -- and is instead using the Monograph as a way to show the new QX60's exterior design.

First impressions? It looks good, if derivative. The link to Infiniti's smaller SUV, the , is immediately clear. The front three-quarter view is where the QX60 Monograph most obviously has a puffed-up QX50 appearance. That's not necessarily bad, considering the QX50 is pretty attractive. But because of this, nothing about the Monograph really speaks to a forward-looking design. It's only a concept but it already looks a year or two old.

Infiniti QX60 Monograph
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Infiniti QX60 Monograph

The sloping roofline looks great.

Infiniti

From the profile, the short front overhang and sloping roofline cut a shape that's immediately reminiscent of the -- again, not a bad thing. Around back, full-width LED taillamps have a segmented light signature, and there's large "Infiniti" text across the hatchback. The license plate is housed down in the bumper for a clean look.

The light segments are what Infiniti calls the Digital Piano Key, and this design forms eyebrows across the thin headlamps, too. Infiniti says the logo in the grille illuminates (of course) when the driver approaches the QX60, and then fans out across the LEDs above the headlights. Another neat detail is what Infiniti calls the "kimono fold pattern" in the panoramic roof. This doesn't pertain to the way the roof operates; Infiniti says "this geometric feature [is] a series of intricate perpendicular lines." You can kind of see it in the overhead shots of the QX60 in the attached gallery.

Overall, the Monograph has a much more purposeful and assertive stance than the current model, which is kind of, well, saggy. The concept's design is far more SUV than crossover, whatever difference is left between those terms these days. And for better or worse, because it's not too far-out looking, it means the production QX60 should hit the road with only minimal changes. We'll know for sure when the new SUV makes its debut next year.

Infiniti QX60 Monograph concept looks ready to hit the road

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