autoevolution
 

Nissan Confirms Next GT-R Will Be Hybrid, Final R35 Facelift Already Spied

In today's automotive world, it's no surprise if speculation that was expected to be 99 percent accurate is ultimately downplayed by an automaker, so you can understand why it's important Nissan has now confirmed the rumors that the next GT-R will be a hybrid.
Nissan 2020 Vision Gran Turismo 1 photo
Photo: Nissan
Godzilla's next generation won't land until 2017 and we could even see Nissan engineers fine-tweak the thing into 2018. Nissan UK's sports car boss, James Oliver, told Top Gear that the hybrid is basically the only way to go.

The man has a strong point, as this is true regardless how you look at the matter - from outside or inside the company. Speaking from the competition's point of view, most big names in the supercar and hypercar world are making efforts to boost efficiency these days. The LaFerrari-918 Spyder-P1 have shown us that "hybrid" can be put into the same sentence with "hypercar". Moreover, while all future Ferrari V12 will be hybridized and all upcoming Ferrari V8s will be twin-turbocharged, even Lamborghini has teased us with the Asterion hybrid concept.

As for Nissan's perspective, the company has invested serious funds into alternative propulsion technologies. We're not just talking about the Leaf EV, but also about the motorsport developments related to this - the ZEOD RC, Nissan's electric entry for this year's Le Mans, is an example as good as any.

The R36 GT-R is quite a challenge for Nissan

When the GT-r first came out back in 2008, it stunned by offering a level of performance that rivaled supercars twice its price. Nissan has been updating their hallo model on a yearly basis, but the competition has reached an absurd level of performance meanwhile. Moreover, the GT-R has lost some of its affordability factor, as the price has seriously gone up over the years.

When you're the company the size of the Nissan-Renault alliance, developing a supercar that can rival a Porsche 911 Turbo on the track isn't the problem, keeping its price reasonable is. This is the greatest challenge for the automaker right now.

It's too early to talk about the specs of the R36 GT-R, but let's just hope the engineers find a way to prevent the batteries from accentuating the current model's serious weight. Not that the scale numbers would prevent the thing from playing the 0 to 60 mph game in about 2.8 seconds...

As for the design, the only indication we have is the 2020 Concept you see above. Then again, we a company makes a car for Gran Turismo, you can't really trust the visual hints too much, can you?

Meanwhile, Nissan will continue to squeeze every bit of performance out of the current platform. In fact, earlier this month we spied what could be the final model year update for the R35. The GT-R's MY upgrades are have been both minor and more serious and you should expect the 2016 one to fall in the latter category.

Nissan should actually turn the GT-R into a sub-brand

Since this is a car that has come to define the brand, Nissan should focus on giving the world an entire family of GT-R models. From a 370Z-replacing sportscar and the current offering, to an upmarket Grand Tourer and even a model that would tempt the crossover market, this is the way. Porsche already sort of does this with the 911, while non-sports examples in the business include the MINI and the Fiat 500 family.
If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)
About the author: Andrei Tutu
Andrei Tutu profile photo

In his quest to bring you the most impressive automotive creations, Andrei relies on learning as a superpower. There's quite a bit of room in the garage that is this aficionado's heart, so factory-condition classics and widebody contraptions with turbos poking through the hood can peacefully coexist.
Full profile

 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories