Nissan wouldn’t mind selling another $17 R35 GT-R

The R35 Nissan GT-R is old enough to see Deadpool and Wolverine. However, it will cease production next year, and the automaker has nothing to replace it for the 2025/2026 model year. Now, global product chief Pierre Loing has detailed why, when the next-generation R36 GT-R will arrive, and why it’s taking so long.

var adpushup = window.adpushup = window.adpushup || {que:()}; adpushup.que.push(function() { if (adpushup.config.platform !== “DESKTOP”){ adpushup.triggerAd(“4d84e4c9 -9937-4f84-82c0-c94544ee6f2a”); } else{ adpushup.triggerAd(“6a782b01-facb-45f3-a88f-ddf1b1f97657”); } });

The R35 was the first GT-R to come to the U.S. as a new model. For the past 17 years, it represented a unique corner of the supercar market. Now that it’s leaving the market, we’ve learned that regulations are the main reason Nissan won’t continue to produce it. That’s true for the brand, which is currently selling the Z, which has the same chassis code as a car it introduced 16 years ago.

More: The legendary R34 Nissan Skyline GT-R could be the ultimate Godzilla

In an interview with Top Gear, Loing said of the GT-R: “It’s still being sold at the moment. It’s been on sale for 17 years and we’d love to sell it for another 17 years, but the regulators gave us some trouble!” While we don’t like any car to remain virtually unchanged for so long, most people would like the GT-R to remain in its current state rather than disappear completely because another car is not coming anytime soon.

window._taboola = window._taboola || (); _taboola.push({ mode: ‘thumbnails-a-mid’, container: ‘taboola-mid-article’, placement: ‘Mid Article’, target_type: ‘mix’ } );

window._taboola = window._taboola || (); _taboola.push({ mode: ‘thumbnails-oc-2×1’, container: ‘taboola-mid-article-thumbnails-organic’, placement: ‘Article mid thumbnail organic’, target_type: ‘mix’ });

Discussing Nissan’s plans between now and the launch of the R36, Loing told Top Gear:

“That’s a good question. Of course, I’d love to have something to fill that gap. But if you look at the history of the GT-R badge, we’ve had gaps before. We showed the GT-R concept in 2001, ended production of the R34 Skyline GT-R in 2002, and then the R35 didn’t come out until 2007.”

“The gap between the ‘Kenmeri’ Skyline GT-R, which was discontinued in 1975, and the R32, which started production in 1989, was even bigger,” Loing added. “The GT-R was strong enough to withstand those gaps in production. We needed to allow for those gaps because going into the electrified world, there’s a lot of debate about ‘what is a GT-R in the age of electrification?’ We don’t have all the answers yet. We’re in the middle of all those debates.”

That last point is particularly telling. The Hyper Force concept certainly feels like a GT-R, but it doesn’t sound like Nissan is terribly optimistic about pure EV powertrains. Of course, as Loing points out, solid-state batteries could be the key to solving some of the problems that electric sports cars have.

“Each step is a breakthrough in our current lithium-ion battery technology,” he explains. “We are on track to present our first solid-state battery prototype in the spring of 2025. Two years later, we will present a prototype car using real batteries, and finally by 2028, we hope to have a car ready for sale; probably in small quantities, initially in Japan.”

“We are on track to get this done. I think it will work, solid-state solves a lot of the problems with electric vehicle batteries, such as density, heat and so on. Those cars with 150 or 200kWh batteries? That’s nonsense – they require weight, cost, big wheels and tires, and brakes. Solid-state helps us break that cycle,” he said.

There’s no doubt that finding a way to make an electric car that weighs no more than a comparable internal combustion engine car would be a huge help and impressive. It would also benefit overall performance. Now we just have to wait and see if Nissan can pull it off.

var adpushup = window.adpushup = window.adpushup || {que:()}; adpushup.que.push(function() { if (adpushup.config.platform !== “DESKTOP”){ adpushup.triggerAd(“5646c171 -cb6e-4e2c-8440-49013ca72758”); } else{ adpushup.triggerAd(“e7c4c913-3924-4b2d-9279-6c00984dd130”); } });