GT-R

Make
Nissan
Segment
Coupe

With continuous rumors swirling about the future of the Nissan GT-R, it's hard to know what to believe, but now we have something relatively concrete from Nissan, thanks to an interview that Autocar held with Nismo CEO Takao Katagiri. According to the Nismo boss, the automaker is working on a new sports car that will be an indirect successor to the venerable GT-R, which was axed in numerous markets this year but has survived for yet another year in the US. Autocar reports that this new car is likely to be a standalone model and will probably arrive this decade, which is good news for fans of internal combustion.

"[There] is a very important vision for Nissan. It's around the heart of this [new car]," said Katagiri, adding, "This region [the UK] is very, very special for us, especially [for] performance cars. So one thing I can say is please wait. We are going to introduce a very exciting model to the UK market under the Nismo brand."

Thankfully, this standalone Nismo sports car will also be sold in mainland Europe and the US, following its primary release in Japan. However, the new car won't be powered exclusively by combustion, as the CEO says that a "combination" of hybrid and all-electric models will be launched.

The most recent rumors on the GT-R suggest that an all-new, all-electric R36 will arrive in 2028, with this intended to coincide with Nissan's production of solid-state batteries. Similarly, earlier Autocar reports have shared that various Nissan executives can only see the production of performance EVs occurring when solid-state batteries are mainstream.

Research on the technology is at an advanced phase, and a pilot factory is scheduled to go live in 2024, with the technology predicted to be ready in 2026 and the first production cars to feature the tech hitting public roads by 2028.

It's still unclear why Nissan would want to introduce a new nameplate when that of the GT-R is so iconic, but hopefully, we can have our cake and eat it too; perhaps Nissan will produce a GT-R successor and another sports car. We'll keep you updated as we learn more.