The Nissan Z Isn’t Going Anywhere, But It Will Have to Adapt
Even the Z car will get electrified in the future, but it won’t go EV for a while.
Speculation and rumors continue to swirl around the Nissan Z sports car even today when the new model has been on-sale over a year. How committed is Nissan to the car, considering the tight budget it gave the new model and the low volume it sells in? Very, Nissan execs say, so much so it’s not only sticking around but will likely become a hybrid in the future.
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No EV Z Anytime Soon
During a question and answer period at the company’s recent Fast Forward event, chief planning officer Ponz Pandikuthira told reporters the Z car is here to stay. Sports cars will remain, he said, even though they rarely pencil (turn a enough profit to justify building them). It will have to adapt to tightening emissions and fuel economy regulations, though. The best way to do that, he suggested, is by going hybrid, not EV.
“The Z needs a relevant powertrain when it gets electrified,” Pandikuthira said. It needs to remain lightweight and nimble, and EV powertrains aren’t there yet. Batteries are heavy, and while the company’s planned solid-state batteries should reduce weight, he thinks a full EV sports car is a long way off at Nissan.
While he wouldn’t confirm directly the Z would eventually become a hybrid or when that might happen, Pandikuthira suggested it was “probably” the best solution to retain the car’s character. Given the latest model is only a year old, we expect it’ll be several years before Nissan considers updating it again, especially considering the engineering that will be required to fit a hybrid system Nissan doesn’t currently have.
If history is any guide, the Z will likely be among the last Nissans to get hybridized. Variants of its VR engine power the Infiniti Q50 and Nissan Armada in a rear-drive configuration, both of which will also need to go hybrid or EV in the future. The Armada, in particular, could see a big fuel economy benefit by going hybrid and would pay for the development of such a system which could eventually be adapted to the Z.
The GT-R Is Apparently a Different Story
This suggestion stands in contrast to what we’ve heard about the future of the GT-R. Nissan has been dropping hints its flagship sportscar will go all-electric in the future, which makes some sense as it’s the company’s standard-bearer for cutting-edge performance technology. It’s possible a hybrid GT-R will precede a full EV, but Nissan has indicated it isn’t developing any all-new combustion engines and the VR twin-turbo V-6 has been around for 17 years. Hybridizing it wouldn’t be much of a technological show of force.
Were you one of those kids who taught themselves to identify cars at night by their headlights and taillights? I was. I was also one of those kids with a huge box of Hot Wheels and impressive collection of home-made Lego hot rods. I asked my parents for a Power Wheels Porsche 911 for Christmas for years, though the best I got was a pedal-powered tractor. I drove the wheels off it. I used to tell my friends I’d own a “slug bug” one day. When I was 15, my dad told me he would get me a car on the condition that I had to maintain it. He came back with a rough-around-the-edges 1967 Volkswagen Beetle he’d picked up for something like $600. I drove the wheels off that thing, too, even though it was only slightly faster than the tractor. When I got tired of chasing electrical gremlins (none of which were related to my bitchin’ self-installed stereo, thank you very much), I thought I’d move on to something more sensible. I bought a 1986 Pontiac Fiero GT and got my first speeding ticket in that car during the test drive. Not my first-ever ticket, mind you. That came behind the wheel of a Geo Metro hatchback I delivered pizza in during high school. I never planned to have this job. I was actually an aerospace engineering major in college, but calculus and I had a bad breakup. Considering how much better my English grades were than my calculus grades, I decided to stick to my strengths and write instead. When I made the switch, people kept asking me what I wanted to do with my life. I told them I’d like to write for a car magazine someday, not expecting it to actually happen. I figured I’d be in newspapers, maybe a magazine if I was lucky. Then this happened, which was slightly awkward because I grew up reading Car & Driver, but convenient since I don’t live in Michigan. Now I just try to make it through the day without adding any more names to the list of people who want to kill me and take my job.
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