TOKYO MOTOR SHOW: Future for Nissan Z unclear

The future of Nissan’s iconic Z sportscar line is in the balance – with its demise likely. That’s the only conclusion from statements across the Japanese company’s leadership at this week’s Tokyo Motor Show.

In roundtables with the Australian automotive media, at least three senior Nissan executives shied away from confirming the existence, let alone the timeline, of a replacement for the current 370Z.

The existing Zed car was updated this year and relaunched as a NISMO enhanced model.

In effect, however, the car’s current form dates back to 2002.

Renault Nissan Alliance Chief Planning Officer, Philippe Klein, the company’s head of development, Hideyuki Sakamoto, and Design Chief, Alfonso Albaisa, were all enthusiastic but evasive when questioned on the future of Zed.

All, hinted at an electric future for any replacement for Nissan’s affordable sportscar. However, Klein’s statements suggested NISMO versions of mainstream Nissan vehicles could fill the niche if the Zed line is mothballed.

“There is a lot of passion behind this vehicle. It is still very alive, at the same time it is a segment that is incredibly challenging which is making the [business] case more difficult,” Klein opened.

“We have the GT-R and we believe there is some good potential behind this. And we have in the same category all the effort we are starting to make on the NISMO side -- which is another way to offer excitement to our customers, leveraging the more conventional body styles.

“We have no intention to quit excitement but we are going to make it happen in different ways.”

Sakamoto, who leads Nissan’s advance development division, suggested e-Power will be part of any performance Nissan, but hinted at development bottlenecks.

“We want to launch a new vehicle [to replace Zed] however the time is really critical and we are now studying utilisation of the new e-Power [driveline] and how it can create more aggressive dynamic performance than a conventional powertrain,” the development boss opined.

“[But] The timing [to do this] is strictly limited by other departments,” he warned.

Sakamoto also note that other aspects of Nissan EV development could augment sports models.

“Many technologies are available to create the new pace of sportscar… including some of control logic for handling,” he said.

“Next question,” design chief Albaisa quipped when confronted on the subject by Aussie media.

“We don’t have a fixed thing… [But] How can we be completely blind of the importance of that name [Zed] to our company. It was a real relevant sports car in its time”.

In contrast, the future of Nissan’s much more expensive GT-R seems guaranteed.

“Supercars are somewhat easier to make. But the 240Z’s beauty was that it was almost a democratisation of the true sports experience. You should know that I love these cars,” Albaisa commented.

“GT-R is an engineering icon for the company… I don’t know what shape it [the GT-R replacement] will take, but the shape I will take is ‘fired’ if I mention it.

“Let’s just say we working on something…

“The 50th Anniversary of the GT-R is coming up – we can’t ignore that,” the Miami-born design chief teased.

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