Nissan Wanted To Keep R35 GT-R Around For 17 More Years, Regulations Killed That Plan

by Carl Malek | September 20, 2024

Nissan admits that it wanted to keep the GT-R around for another 17 years but evolving regulations and a changing cybersecurity environment helped put an end to the R35 model’s attempt at achieving vehicular immortality.

Nissan admitted that it would have had the GT-R in production for another 17 years but new regulations killed that plan.

Nissan’s GT-R sports car has already accomplished plenty of things during its 17-year-long production run with the car not only helping the company bring an icon back to life but also attracting a new generation of buyers especially younger buyers who wanted to experience what was once long considered forbidden fruit limited to international markets.

It certainly deserves a well-earned retirement, but if Nissan had its way, the model would have been around for another 17 years which would have allowed the model to be in an elite club of vehicles that had extraordinarily long production runs before they were brought out of service with the company continuing to build on the GTR’s platform with more evolutionary changes and updates.

Regulations stifled plans

Nissan would have continued to build on the current platform with more evolutionary changes being planned.

This admission came from Pierre Loing Nissan’s Global Vice President of Product planning during a recent interview he had with Top Gear. “It’s still on sale – for the moment. It’s been on sale for 17 years and we’d love to make it another 17 years, but the regulator gives us some trouble.” The regulators that Loing is referring to come in the form of tighter fuel economy regulations which can no longer be met by the aging twin-turbocharged V6 as well as new cybersecurity mandates which would have required an expensive overhaul of the GT-R’s interior with some of the core bits still dating back to when it was first introduced in the early 2000s.

The GT-R’s impressive shelf life has allowed it to stay fresh in the minds of buyers, but with the model having updates that were largely limited to refreshes and other minor updates over the years, it was only a matter of time before Father Time and the changing legal climate finally caught up to the GT-R and prevented it from being around for another 17 years.

What’s next for the GT-R?

Recent rumors suggest that the next-generation GT-R might emerge as an EV.

Fans wondering what Nissan has planned for the GT-R after it does its final lap in production will potentially have to wait a while to hear any updates. The current generation model is leaving production with two special editions; the Skyline and the Takumi Editions which celebrate different aspects of the GT-R’s history. What’s coming after it is unknown with Loing’s response to that question being intentionally vague

“It’s a good question. Of course, I’d love to have something to fill the 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 R34 Skyline GT-R production in 2002, then the R35 didn’t launch until 2007. The gap between the ‘Kenmeri’ Skyline GT-R ending in 1975 and the R32 starting in 1989 was even larger. The GT-R is strong enough to live with these gaps in its production. And we need to have a gap, because going into the electrified world, there is a lot of debate about ‘what is a GT-R in an era of electrification?’ We don’t have all the answers yet. We are in the middle of all those debates.”

Multiple rumors suggest that Nissan will bring the model back as an EV with the Hyper Force concept possibly providing a preview of what a design for such a model would look like and a separate rumor suggesting that the company will use solid-state battery packs to try and achieve the lofty performance targets that it will undoubtedly have in place for such a model. “Every step [with solid-state batteries] is a breakthrough over what we can currently do with lithium-ion batteries,” said Loing. “We’re on par to do our first prototype solid-state battery by spring 2025. We’ll have a prototype vehicle two years later using real batteries then eventually by 2028 we want a vehicle which we will sell; probably in small numbers and in Japan to begin with.”

Nissan is not revealing too much about a potential GT-R replacement.

An early production run in Japan first would give the company time to not only get real-world data from customer use, but also if demand exists for the model in other markets including the U.S., Europe, and other parts of the world. In the meantime, the company is taking its time, and it will reveal more information only when it’s ready to do so.