2023 Nissan Z set to smash Toyota Supra in sales

The 2023 Nissan Z appears certain to win the popularity war with its rear-drive V6 turbo coupe arch-rival, the Toyota GR Supra, following a significant number of initial sales since its Aussie launch in September, leading to a huge pre-order bank.

Nissan Australia delivered 129 examples of the new seventh-generation Z in the final third of last year, compared to 141 Supra sales for all 12 months of 2022, but it expects to deliver around 1200 Zs in 2023, the vast majority of which will be manuals.

In contrast, when it was launched locally in September 2019, the born-again Toyota Supra arrived in auto-only form with a higher price tag and an initial Australian allocation of about 300 vehicles.

Nevertheless the new Supra outsold the old 370Z in its first year on sale (327 v 178 sales) and in 2020 (198 v 109), before the previous Z hit back in its final year on sale, with 260 sales in 2021 versus 155 for the Supra.

The arrival of the Supra manual last September failed to reignite sales for the Toyota sports car and, barring a massive price cut, it’s highly unlikely the Supra (priced from $87,000 plus on-road costs) will go anywhere near the sales of the Nissan Z ($73,000 plus ORCs) in the foreseeable future, given the latter is currently more affordable by $14,000.

Indeed the novelty of a new-generation Nissan Z is propelling Aussie customer interest to new heights.

Of the 1200 cars already pre-ordered with cash deposits, around 840 will be six-speed manuals complete with Exedy clutch, downshift rev-matching, a lightweight carbon-fibre composite drive shaft and mechanical limited-slip diff.

“Approximately 70 per cent of the orders were [for the] manual,” Nissan Australia’s managing director Adam Paterson told carsales.

But it’s not all good news for rusted-on Zed heads. Some buyers will have to play the waiting game for their 298kW two-seat coupe – potentially more than 12 months.

“We’re just shy of 1200 [pre-ordered] units and the goal is to clear those within a year,” said Paterson.

Given that global demand for the new Nissan Z is still extreme, alongside semi-conductor shortages and shipping delays, that forecast could be at the optimistic end of the scale.

“We’re working to make that happen as fast as possible but there are all these component availability challenges that are changing constantly,” he said.

While 1200 annual sales is pitiful compared to the volumes of the most popular new vehicles in Australia, such as SUVs and dual-cab 4x4 utes, the sports car segment is not really about profit – it’s about image.

Sports cars are brand-builders; they’re the celebrities of any given car-maker’s range and vehicles like the Supra and 86 have helped shift customer perceptions of Toyota from being a cardigan-wearing pipe-and-slippers brand to a cool and assertive trend-setter.

The reborn Z coupe and its GT4 motorsport off-shoot will do the same for Nissan.

“We've been really excited about how people have come out in droves to see the car at our at our dealerships and the excitement that we see on our socials and commentary,” said Paterson.

“The overall feedback about a manual rear-drive 400-horsepower sports car [is encouraging] and there’s still a strong passionate audience out there for one, definitely.”

As with all sports cars, however, demand for the new Z will abate in the coming years. As that happens Nissan will expand the range with a high-end NISMO version and potentially several other Z variants.

A convertible won’t be among them this time round and, thankfully, nor will a Nissan Z-based SUV.

Nissan Z sales:
2022 – 129
2021 – 260 (370Z)
2020 – 109 (370Z)
2019 – 178 (370Z)

Toyota Supra sales:
2022 – 141
2021 – 155
2020 – 198
2019 – 327

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