I sell these cars. And I live where people will buy hybrids and even electric cars, for reasons that transcend pure economics. Will the hybrid pay off? Tough question to answer, but basically, if you equip the cars equally, you pay a $3000 premium for the hybrid. You get about a 20% fuel economy boost. Let's leave aside the discussion of whether the cars achieve their sticker price fuel economy. As the expression goes, YMMV. But regardless of how much your mileage varies from sticker, chances are, you'll get 4-5mpg better fuel economy driving the hybrid vs the gasser, given the same driving conditions (maybe a little better delta if you can drive with the A/C off a lot of the time). Someone better than me can do the math, but at a 5mpg boost, it is going to take at least 4-5 years to pay back $3000 in gas.
The critical part of the above paragraph is the line "if you equip the cars equally". At the upper end in terms of equipment, that's easy to do. A $57K gasser will be a $60K hybrid. But it is harder to achieve parity of features at the lower end. People who want a hybrid, typically also want the safety features of the Driver's Assistance package. Infiniti has made it very difficult to equip the hybrid and non-hyrbid equivalently though - except at that $57K/$60K price point. I think we've sold one hybrid that came without a theater package (we've tried to order them, but Infiniti adds the theater package whether we want it or not). In 2014, Infiniti did not break out the Driver Assistance package as a stand-alone option for the hybrid like they do for the gasser. So while I can build a Prem, Prem+, DRI gasser for less than $52K, no such hybrid animal exists. To get those safety features in the hybrid, you had to spend $60K. And that $52K gasser, is by far the best configuration for this car. So now, you have a $8,000 price delta when you compare a real gasser car that someone can buy, to a real hybrid with the same safety equipment.
For 2015, you can allegedly build a DRI only Hybrid. Currently, 7 of those exist in the USA. My dealership has 3 of them. Another nearby dealer has one - in a hideous color combo. The other 3 I presume are spread around. Infiniti clearly doesn't want to build too many of this extremely popular (at least in my geography) feature combination. Similarly, they don't want to let us build many with Deluxe Technology, but no theater package.
Bottom line: If there's a configuration of this car that you want. And it is available that way as a hybrid, then I think you can make the argument for the economics - especially if you'll be keeping the car for a long time. But if you want a configuration where the price delta in terms of real, actual cars is more like $5-8K, good luck making up that in gas.
If someone from Infiniti is reading this, I'll tell you that I've had at least a dozen clients come in asking for a hybrid, wanting a hybrid. But left with a $52-$54K gasser because the only hybrid version of the car that was equivalent, cost $60K. Congratulations, your expectation that you'd sell a small number of hybrids has become a self-fulfilling prophecy because of the way you've packaged options.
Oh, and if someone in the Bay Area wants a hybrid with Driver's Assistance, but not the Deluxe package, contact me soon. These cars won't last long. Maybe later in the year Infiniti will realize they could sell more if they build them, but who knows.
FWIW, I drive a hybrid Q50. Totally different economic equation on that car. I get an 8mpg boost, plus 10% more horsepower than the gasser, and the MSRP premium for the hybrid was $1900 - no brainer even on a 2 year lease.
