Exclusive: Nissan Really, Really Wants To Bring the Nissan Z T-Top ‘Concept’ to Production
The Drive ·
"We're gonna make that car happen" if people shout loud enough, Nissan America's product boss exclusively tells us. Time to get loud. The post Exclusive: Nissan Really, Really Wants To Bring the Nissan Z T-Top ‘Concept’ to Production appeared first on The Drive .
One of Nissan’s top executives just made fans a very simple and enticing offer: If you really want a new Z car with a classic T-top roof, ask and you shall receive.
The Nissan Z Kaze T-top concept debuted Wednesday and while it’s officially a concept, the automaker is being unusually direct in laying out a path to a production model. During an exclusive interview, Senior Vice President and Chief Planning Officer for Nissan North America, Ponz Pandikuthira told The Drive , “Tell your fans, you got plenty of them, that if you really want this car, be loud and tell Nissan you absolutely want it, because then they’ll build it.
“It’s a concept, we’re playing with something,” Pandikuthira added. “But if it gets well received from the public we’re gonna make that car happen.”
Nissan’s in dire straights right now and announced a massive turnaround plan in April . The first salvo in that plan is about to arrive in the form of the mass-market Rogue Hybrid that’ll attempt to battle the juggernaut that is the Toyota RAV4. Another step is to take on the Toyota 4Runner, Jeep Wrangler, and Ford Bronco with a new Xterra using V6 and hybrid powertrains .
But those are volume models that will sit alongside the larger Armada SUV and Frontier pickup truck. In April, Nissan President and CEO Ivan Espinosa said to The Drive , “The sports cars are the core of what we are as a company.” This was also where Espinosa mentioned that Nissan’s already working on a new GT-R , while Pandikuthira said the next-gen Godzilla will be electrified, sport the VR38 block, and arrive in 2030.
The man in charge of Nissan’s global corporate product strategy, Richard Candler, told The Drive , “We are really deeply looking at the sports [car] lineup again. We all want to do some cool cars.” Candler also noted in regards to the Silvia specifically, “I’d love to bring back that nameplate. I do think it’s really valuable,” and that there’s “still space” for it.
And, just last week, Pandikuthira said “there will be subtle nods to [Nissan’s] heritage” in its lineup going forward, and that he wants customers to “feel that lineage” in the automaker’s cars as it strives to be “true to our origins.”
Hard to argue a new Z with T-top panels doesn’t deliver on that message. Make enough noise online, and soon enough you might just be able to place a reservation with your local Nissan dealer.
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The post Exclusive: Nissan Really, Really Wants To Bring the Nissan Z T-Top ‘Concept’ to Production appeared first on The Drive .