Nissan plans global halo cars including future GT-R

Nissan’s global halo-car plan

“Driving excitement will always be at the heart of Nissan, it’s what we do,” incoming Nissan boss Ivan Espinosa told TopGear.com. That commitment means the brand could have four or five major Nissan halo cars designed to demonstrate its capabilities.

From 1 April, the man widely regarded as a genuine ‘car guy’ will occupy the company’s top job. He wants these defining models from Nissan’s new cinematic universe to be available worldwide.

It is easy to think first of the Z coupé, successor to the 370Z, and the car known as the ‘GT-R’. Yet Espinosa means ‘driving fun’ in the broadest sense. “We also have the Patrol,” he said. “If you go to Dubai or Abu Dhabi, you can drive it in the dunes. I’ve done it myself, it’s really exciting and super fun.” We agree.

“ I want to have four or five cars at the top of our portfolio that are really brand-oriented cars; cars that really represent what Nissan is about, that show what the heartbeat of Nissan is.

“These cars should go everywhere in the world,” he added, observing that supposedly ‘democratic’ decisions over which models go to which regions have at times left certain markets without Nissan’s best offerings. The UK, for example, does not receive the Z, while the Patrol is both a Middle East exclusive and a major seller there.

“For me, the product is the brand, and if you really want to position the brand strongly, you need to be a bit more disciplined in this. This is one of the things I want to implement.

“I have some options about the cars but you can imagine a future Z, if we ever do a more affordable car which is still in my dream as I’ve told you, maybe the future GT-R, a future Patrol. These are for me the cars that really describe what Nissan is about. With this, we keep the dream alive of what driving excitement is.”

Regulations and a future Nissan GT-R

So, what impact will regulation have? “It makes things difficult,” he said, “but in a couple of years as the regulations start converging into more electrified powertrains, it might be easier to do this.

“It’s getting more and more complicated – being a product planner these days is the most difficult job in the car business, because every day you find something different, something new. Tariffs, regulations, different market trends, so it starts to become a very complicated chess game. You normally play in a level field, but now you have three different chess boards at the same time, so it becomes very complicated.

“But hopefully we can start implementing this soon,” he added.

Could the next GT-R arrive soon, then? “We’re looking at options for the next GT-R.” Previously, Espinosa outlined what a future Godzilla could become after Nissan revealed the wild 1,341bhp Hyper Force concept, pictured above. In short, it could feature two motors, a solid-state battery, AWD, highly advanced digital and AI technology, plus the ability to move with the flair of earlier GT-Rs. Read the full debrief here.