The Three-Row 2025 Infiniti QX80 Makes a Sky-High Debut in New York

The 2025 Infiniti QX80, which will go on sale towards the end of summer, made a high-flying global debut in Manhattan last month.

The huge, three-row SUV was cut up into pieces then transported via elevator to the 100th floor observation deck of the Edge at Hudson Yards. The Infiniti, the first car to be so ensconced, was revealed 1,100 feet up amid flashing colour lights in partnership with iHeartMedia in a live stream as night descended on New York City. Later, five-time Grammy winner singer/pianist Jon Batiste entertained a group that included executives and dealers.

Luxury three-row SUVs have turned into an important segment, including electric entries such as the seven-passenger Kia EV9 and Cadillacs Escalade IQ and Vistiq (coming as a 2026 model). The QX80 isn’t electric; it’s powered by a 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6-rated engine with 450 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque. That’s up 50 horsepower and 103 pound-feet from the current QX80. The nine-speed automatic transmission is shifted with piano key buttons.

Prices start at US$82,450 for the Pure rear-wheel drive version, and soar to US$110,595 for the Autograph all-wheel drive (with four iterations in between). At the launch, Craig Keeys, group vice president of Infiniti Americas, described the QX80 as “our new flagship, pushing the envelope from ordinary to extraordinary.” Keeys didn’t mention the twin-turbo V6 power, and the other speakers skipped over it too—the QX80 is all about luxurious refinements and tech innovations.

Prices for the large, luxury three-row SUV start at US$82,450.
Infiniti

For instance, heated and cooled seats for the first two rows are available, as is massaging in the second row. Upscale Autograph buyers get rear climate controls via touchscreen. Much mentioned at the launch was the segment-first availability of biometric cooling, which monitors second-row passengers body temperatures and automatically adjusts the climate controls and air flow to that section. So, if mom picks up an overheated soccer player, he or she will be cooled down while other passengers and the driver stay steady.

And then there’s the top of the line 1,200-watt, 44-speaker Klipsch premiere audio system with a 24-channel amplifier and, among other things, titanium tweeters and speakers in the roof. Other carmakers have big stereos, too, but this one has something called Individual Audio, which directs phone calls and navigation to the front headrest speakers without interrupting the cabin’s music. Or the driver can listen to sounds directed only at him or her, without waking up sleeping passengers.

The interior on the QX80 is decidedly upscale, with leather, wood, suede, and metal elements. There are two 14.3-inch displays. The driver’s screen has three separate views, and there is a nine-inch touchscreen below the infotainment display with climate functions and a haptic element to let users feel when their fingers are on the correct virtual button. A colour head-up display is available. When drivers approach their QX80, its flush door handles open up to welcome them.

The interior features leather, wood, suede, and metal elements.
Infiniti

At the top of the line is the Autograph grade, which gets a two-tone roof, dark chrome trim, and unique 22-inch Turbine wheels. Inside, it benefits from semi-aniline leather with hand stitching and open-pore ash wood trim with aluminium accents.

As it sat under the coloured lights on the vertigo-inducing observation deck, with a cold wind blowing, it was possible only to get a quick first impression of the QX80. It’s big, the type of SUV that only American automakers built until the Asian brands realised it’s a highly lucrative market. And recent experience suggests that buyers want their three-row SUVs with the top infotainment and luxury appointments. Hence the Autograph version might do quite well.

Batiste, with a drummer and alto sax player, played four songs, mixing up jazz, funk, New Orleans percussion interludes, and soul. He was kinetic, barely staying at the piano for half a song. One number combined John Coltrane and the Beatles before it turned to some jazz-rock. The children’s song “If You’re Happy and You Know It” became a bravura version of “When the Saints go Marching In.” In a brief interview, Batiste was asked about seeing the QX80 on that windswept platform. “It proves it’s durable,” Batiste says.

Wildfires in California have grown more frequent and more catastrophic in recent years, and that’s beginning to reflect in home values, according to a report by the San Francisco Fed released Monday.

The effect on home values has grown over time, and does not appear to be offset by access to insurance. However, “being farther from past fires is associated with a boost in home value of about 2% for homes of average value,” the report said.

In the decade between 2010 and 2020, wildfires lashed 715,000 acres per year on average in California, 81% more than the 1990s. At the same time, the fires destroyed more than 10 times as many structures, with over 4,000 per year damaged by fire in the 2010s, compared with 355 in the 1990s, according to data from the United States Department of Agriculture cited by the report.

That was due in part to a number of particularly large and destructive fires in 2017 and 2018, such as the Camp and Tubbs fires, as well the number of homes built in areas vulnerable to wildfires, per the USDA account.

The Camp fire in 2018 was the most damaging in California by a wide margin, destroying over 18,000 structures, though it wasn’t even in the top 20 of the state’s largest fires by acreage. The Mendocino Complex fire earlier that same year was the largest ever at the time, in terms of area, but has since been eclipsed by even larger fires in 2020 and 2021.

As the threat of wildfires becomes more prevalent, the downward effect on home values has increased. The study compared how wildfires impacted home values before and after 2017, and found that in the latter period studied—from 2018 and 2021—homes farther from a recent wildfire earned a premium of roughly $15,000 to $20,000 over similar homes, about $10,000 more than prior to 2017.

The effect was especially pronounced in the mountainous areas around Los Angeles and the Sierra Nevada mountains, since they were closer to where wildfires burned, per the report.

The study also checked whether insurance was enough to offset the hit to values, but found its effect negligible. That was true for both public and private insurance options, even though private options provide broader coverage than the state’s FAIR Plan, which acts as an insurer of last resort and provides coverage for the structure only, not its contents or other types of damages covered by typical homeowners insurance.

“While having insurance can help mitigate some of the costs associated with fire episodes, our results suggest that insurance does little to improve the adverse effects on property values,” the report said.

While wildfires affect homes across the spectrum of values, many luxury homes in California tend to be located in areas particularly vulnerable to the threat of fire.

“From my experience, the high-end homes tend to be up in the hills,” said Ari Weintrub, a real estate agent with Sotheby’s in Los Angeles. “It’s up and removed from down below.”

That puts them in exposed, vegetated areas where brush or forest fires are a hazard, he said.

While the effect of wildfire risk on home values is minimal for now, it could grow over time, the report warns. “This pattern may become stronger in years to come if residential construction continues to expand into areas with higher fire risk and if trends in wildfire severity continue.”

The Three-Row 2025 Infiniti QX80 Makes a Sky-High Debut in New York

Report by the San Francisco Fed shows small increase in premiums for properties further away from the sites of recent fires