Nissan 400Z design revealed

The final production-ready design of Nissan’s next-generation sports car, the 2021 Nissan 400Z, will be virtually identical to the jaw-dropping Nissan Z Proto ‘concept’ unveiled in September 2020.

A total of seven patent images were published on the federal government’s IP Australia website on September 15, 2020 – just one day before the Nissan Z Proto was unveiled – showing the rear-drive twin-turbo V6-powered sports car’s exterior design.

This has led some to speculate that the patent images were registered to protect the design of the prototype car.

However, carsales understands that the images you see here were in fact lodged with authorities to protect the road-going model that will be entering the Australian homologation process in the coming months ahead production commencing in the second half of this year.

The Australian launch of the new Nissan 400Z is expected to take place late in 2021.

So, as expected, the new Z35-series Nissan sports car will feature plenty of retro design cues including 1980s-styled brake lights inspired by the 300ZX and ’70s-like circular headlights informed by the original 240Z.

At the unveiling of the Nissan Z Proto, Nissan’s global CEO Makoto Uchida made it abundantly clear that the preview model was a near-production prototype.

“The Z Proto you see here is not a concept. The look of this is close to final,” he said.

Nissan’s chief designer Alfonso Albaisa added that the only modifications in line for the prototype were minor tweaks guided by the engineering team.

“What you see basically has gone through the [full R&D] process and it’s something that we love and we feel is right, and now the engineers are going to [adjust] very small things,” he said.

“We often discuss this ‘passing the baton’ to our engineers, because the engineers now own it and are finishing and finetuning and doing all of these things.”

Stand by for more details as the 2021 Nissan 400Z is officially unveiled and draws closer to its Australian launch.