The Nissan GT-R both will have proper successors by at least 2022 and they’re going to be electrified in some way.
Nissan mostly sells Qashqais overseas and Rogues in the United States but that doesn’t mean they’re going to abandon sports cars like the GT-R and 370Z altogether. When prodded for an answer from Top Gear in a report they put out earlier this week (Oct. 16, 2018) Jean-Pierre Diemaz, a Nissan Marketing Boss confirmed that, “Sports cars are part of who we are, so one way or another they have to be there.” Concerning the history of these two cars and their immediate future, it was electrification that would be the basis for both of these sports cars returns on what’ll be under the hood.
“I don’t see electrification and sports cars as technologies that are conflicting,” Diernaz told us. “Maybe it’s the other way around, sports cars can benefit lots from electrification. At the end of the day, a motor and battery are much easier to move from one platform to another, from one sub-segment to another, than a full internal combustion set-up.”
Back in March of this year, Nissan laid out a plan for electrification that included Europe, China, and the United States as well as the rest of the global market. While their plans for Europe are ambitious, 50 percent of their lineup electrified by 2022, for the United States their goals were a little more realistic with just 30 percent electrified by 2025. But with the Nissan GT-R and 370z shared by both North America and Europe, it’s safe to assume these two will be included too.
It’s no secret that Nissan is taking what its learned from the realm of racing, specifically their now defunct Nismo LM GT-R program, and applying it to real-world applications. When the FWD Midship mounted LM GT-R hit the racetrack, although slow, those in the know knew that the LM’s powertrain would form the basis for the new GT-R’s powertrain. That means a twin-turbocharged V6 attached to some sort of hybridization. The Le Mans Racer’s engine was good for 550 HP with the hybrid system more than doubling that power for short stints up to 1250 HP.
More than likely this new GT-R will take heavily from Nissan’s EV program and incorporate both mechanical and battery-powered electric assist. The same goes for the Nissan 370Z’s successor, with smaller Twin turbo’d V6 with a battery assist hybrid system replacing the adept but ancient VQ.
Nissan relies on the GT-R and 370Z for its sporty brand image, the company is fun! But what’s not so widely known is that their sports cars aren’t exactly selling, a couple of hundred units between the two. There were only 37 GT-R’s sold last month as per GoodCarBadCar.
Although these sports cars aren’t going to sell as much as their more common cars, they do need to be profitable somehow to justify their existence.
Fresh models with hybrid powertrains are part of that revival tour for both aging sports cars.
Source: Top Gear
