No more NISMO models, says Nissan

Nissan Australia has confirmed it will not extend its current NISMO performance catalogue beyond the GT-R NISMO supercar, 370Z NISMO sports coupe and newly-installed JUKE NISMO RS mini-crossover.

Speaking at the launch of the JUKE NISMO in Adelaide this week, Nissan Australia’s senior manager of sports cars and SUVs, Ben Warren, confirmed there would be no forthcoming NISMO-fettled models.

“At this stage, this will be the NISMO line-up for the immediate future,” he said.

“For us, it’s not just a styling piece, it’s got to have performance. From time to time we see other things pop up around the world like examples of the Y62 Patrol in the UAE, but they not clearly the right combination for our market.”

Nissan has been reticent to take on more NISMO models in Australia in the past despite their global availability, for fear of diluting what the sub-brand stands for.

Warren said stakeholders would continue to uphold that view.

“The thing with NISMO is that it’s really tempting to say let’s make a NISMO QASHQAI or X-TRAIL, but the product it’s based on needs to have an element of sports to it and it’s got to have a natural fit to it. Making Frankensteins of everything doesn’t really work,” he said.

“Within our current portfolio I don’ think there is a model that we’d desperately want a NISMO offering.”

Given Nissan’s recent promise to electrify one-third of the vehicles it sells in Australia by 2022, starting with the second-generation LEAF EV in mid-2019, Warren warmed to the idea of electrified NISMO variants.

However, he declined to detail any development of such vehicles.

Nissan Australia’s sports car manager also ruled out any talk of a NISMO-modified Navara ute in the near future.

“NISMO’s probably not the right fit for Navara because NISMO’s heritage is on the track,” he said. “Navara pushes into that off-road and tougher perspective and we’ve just launched the Black edition in light of that.

“The ute segment is moving a fair way… Certainly if there was one [a hotter Navara] available we’d look at it, but I think that’s where our special version strategy is trying to create those elements.”