GT-R NISMO

Make
Nissan
Segment
Coupe

There's been a fair bit of speculation surrounding the Nissan GT-R of late, with the special supercar reaching the end of the road in its homeland. With the car approaching its 15th birthday, it really is long overdue for a replacement, but what will it be like? We already know that it won't become a fully electric vehicle just yet and many rumors have suggested that it will be hybridized to help meet emissions and performance targets. However, Japanese publication Best Car, the same outlet that originally purported the rumor of a hybrid powertrain, is now saying that the R36 will be purely combustion-powered.

Nissan confirmed back in 2018 that it had already begun working on the design of the R36 and said at the time that it wanted the new GT-R to be "the fastest super sports car in the world." With electrification making the competition stiffer than ever, it seems like an enormous challenge for Nissan to overcome, and we can't help but be skeptical about the validity of this rumor.

Late last year, Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida had the following to say: "We are looking at how we can do it electrified [...] The GT-R is a professional machine and we need to work it out for the future."

Nevertheless, he did confirm that the V6 engine would remain in the R36.

All of these factors suggest that the R36 GT-R will essentially be a massively reworked version of the existing R35, in much the same vein as the Nissan Z is heavily based upon the earlier 370Z and even shares its chassis code.

Overhauling the R35 without fundamentally changing its DNA could save Nissan some cash in the short term, but the switch to electrification is inevitable, and it's possible that Nissan could launch the R36 as its final combustion-only GT-R just to bring in some more money before revealing a hybridized or electric successor with a totally new platform.

This could prove to be problematic, as other automakers have a headstart in the electrified sports car niche. Whatever the case, we'll have to wait for more news directly from Nissan, as this new rumor suggests the R36 may only arrive in spring or summer of 2023.