While Nissan has talked plenty about the next-generation GT-R — because the next-generation GT-R has been a decade coming — it’s refused to commit to specifics. Maybe it’ll be electric, maybe not. Last year, the automaker’s CEO said it was still exploring the powertrain side of things. In 2019, the chief architect said development hadn’t even been greenlit yet.
Thankfully, something must have changed in the past year, because the head of performance division Nismo is now ready to chat, and has confirmed to Autocar that something big is coming. Eventually.
Nismo’s Takao Katagiri revealed to the publication that a hybrid performance car is in development. He didn’t outright call it a GT-R, but he did say it’s arriving “this decade” and that it’ll be sold globally, including in the States:
“[There] is a very, very important vision [in Europe] for Nissan. It’s around the heart of this [new car],” said Katagiri, adding that Nissan’s Sunderland factory also makes the UK an “essential” market for the firm.
“This region [the UK] is very, very special for us, especially [for] performance cars. So one thing I can say is please wait. We are going to introduce a very exciting model to the UK market under the Nismo brand.”
It’s worth noting that neither the current GT-R nor the new Nissan Z is sold in the U.K., so this future model will have to do plenty of lifting for the company, at least on the other side of the Atlantic. Autocar adds that Nissan has previously indicated that it’s waiting for solid-state batteries to mature before committing to a fully electric sports car, further indicating this prospective model is likely to utilize hybrid power initially if it’s dropping before 2030.
I know it’s tough to get excited about a car that is being teased as definitely coming in the next seven years, but I’m not kidding when I say this is the most definitive sign of life Nissan has really ever shared about the future GT-R, or at least whatever will replace the R35. Then again, maybe this mythical new enthusiast car Nissan’s building its entire brand around is actually an Ariya Nismo. In which case, all I can say is that I don’t love the sound of those words next to each other, either.