August 26th 2025 was a symbolic day for Nissan. Production of the R35 Nissan GT-R finally ceased, after 18 years and 48,000 all-wheel-drive, twin-turbo V6 performance cars. The news embodied the company’s predicament: the product pipeline had stopped flowing, merger talks with Honda had failed, and Nissan was hurtling towards a 30-billion yen loss for the first half of the year. But sometimes the darkest hour comes before the dawn: a new Nissan GT-R is coming, and 'no way' will it be electric, according to CEO Ivan Espinosa.

 

Eight months on, Nissan’s fightback is well and truly underway. In Yokohama last month, Espinosa outlined his Nissan Vision – with ‘heartbeat’ cars packing genuine performance playing a key role in restoring the brand’s lustre, including the GT-R.