2025 will go down in history as the year Nissan bid farewell to the GT-R R35, but enthusiasts now have a reason to look forward to the future. While the timing of Godzilla’s return remains uncertain, there’s good news about the company’s performance car lineup. A renewed and somewhat surprising interest in Nismo will see the portfolio grow from five to ten models in the coming years.
Doubling the lineup is part of a broader initiative to expand the Nismo sub-brand, boosting annual sales from 100,000 to 150,000 units. If everything goes according to plan, Nissan expects to hit that target by the end of 2028. To get there, it is considering teaming up with “external partners.” In other words, a day may come when a Nismo-branded vehicle is co-developed with another automaker.
The Z tops Nissan’s current Nismo lineup, but there are several regional models you may have already forgotten about. A new Patrol Nismo launched earlier this year in the Middle East, packing more punch than America’s Armada Nismo. For obvious reasons, we’re counting the two as a single model.
There’s also an Ariya Nismo, a high-performance take on an electric SUV that’s already dead in the U.S. Elsewhere, the Rogue is sold in some markets as the X-Trail, and it received the Nismo treatment a few months ago. Over in Japan, Nissan sells the Note Aura Nismo hot hatchback.
Photo by: Nissan
Pumping up Nismo is a key bullet point in the “Re:Nissan” plan, which, aside from draconian cost-cutting measures, also features a major product onslaught. That push has already begun with the new Leaf, Sentra, Elgrand, and Rogue Plug-In Hybrid, although the latter is merely a rebadged Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. Similarly, the 2026 Micra is a Renault 5 in disguise, while the new Navara mid-size pickup truck is a reskinned Mitsubishi Triton. In China, Nissan has just launched two sedans: the N6 and Teana.
It’s unclear which of these new arrivals will receive the Nismo treatment, but if we had to pick, the Sentra seems best suited for a sporty makeover. For now, Nissan isn’t divulging the identities of the five future additions to the lineup. Logic suggests the new Skyline sports sedan, arriving in 2027 with rear-wheel drive and a manual gearbox, is a prime candidate for a Nismo variant.
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Source: Nissan
The four-door Skyline will be positioned somewhere between the Z and the GT-R, according to Nissan’s global design director, Alfonso Albaisa. It’s worth noting that the outgoing model sold in Japan received a Nismo glow-up a couple of years ago as a limited-run special edition, making a follow-up model a logical assumption.
Nissan has pledged to bring back the Xterra, but it’s too soon to say whether a Nismo version is in the works. Speaking of promises, the GT-R will return one day, as Nissan claims it’s “committed to reimagining the future generation of GT-R.” Doubling down, CEO Ivan Espinosa says the “goal is for the GT-R nameplate to one day make a return.” Here’s hoping the R36 is among the five planned models.
Meanwhile, Nissan aims to roll out Nismo-branded race car prototypes beginning in fiscal year 2026, which kicks off next April. Lessons learned from those test vehicles will be applied to future street-legal models.
