Standalone NISMO EV sports car coming

Nissan’s hot shop, NISMO, is going it alone.

That’s the word from NISMO CEO Takao Katagiri, who told British outlet Autocar that “we are going to introduce a very exciting model to the UK market under the NISMO brand”.

Katagiri wouldn’t reveal specifics, but it’s understood that because the Nissan GT-R has been axed in Europe, and since the new Nissan Z also can’t be sold there due to emissions regulations, NISMO’s new electric model would fill the sports car void for the brand.

Katagiri also confirmed the new bespoke NISMO EV road rocket will be sold in right- and left-hand drive markets globally, starting with Japan and eventually arriving in Europe and North America.

Given its RHD deployment in Japan and the UK, NISMO’s electric performance car is expected to roll into Nissan dealerships in Australia in due course.

It’s not yet clear when the new battery-powered high-performance EV will be launched, but given the NISMO boss’s appeal for UK customers to “please wait” for the vehicle, it’s looking like a post-2025 proposition.

“This region [UK] is very, very special for us, especially performance cars. So one thing I can say is please wait,” Katagiri said.

Expect the NISMO sports car to be a two-door coupe with an aerodynamic design that will also be offered with a hybrid powertrain, according to Katagiri.

Where this new sports car exists within the wider Nissan/NISMO hierarchy isn’t clear, with some reports suggesting it will be the spiritual successor to the Nissan GT-R.

However, given the brand value attached to the GT-R nameplate and the model’s importance and rich history – both in motorsport and production cars – it’s unlikely Nissan would abandon the famous GT-R (aka ‘Godzilla’) moniker.

An all-new R36 Nissan GT-R was confirmed in late 2020 by Nissan’s senior vice-president of global product planning, Ivan Espinosa.

“This car [GT-R] together with the Z and Patrol are perhaps the three most iconic and brand representative nameplates that we have as a company, that have a deep history,” he said.

“These are nameplates that we are consistently looking at how, when, what we should do with them.

“What will be the role of the next GT-R is to again be a very credible performance machine – the way the current GT-R is.”

There’s a chance the new model could be called the NISMO Silvia, resurrecting another famous Nissan sports car of which concept designs were revealed by Nissan’s own design boss in late 2021.

Whatever transpires, it’s clear that Nissan is working on a high-performance electric sports car in a bid to proactively evolve what the NISMO brand stands for.

Watch this space.

For everything you auto know about EVs, listen to carsales' Watts Under the Bonnet: the electric car podcast

Join the conversation at 

our Facebook page

Or email us at 

editor@carsales.com.au