Nissan Skyline News

Nissan clearly believes the best form of defence is attack, with the company’s global President Ivan Espinosa confirming a new-generation Skyline is locked in for launch in December this year.Speaking with Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun, Espinosa said he hoped the new sports sedan would "become a symbol of the renaissance of Nissan", joining a host of other new products from the Japanese maker.Representing the first full model renewal in 13 years, like its ‘V37’ predecessor, the new 14th-generation Skyline will be produced in Nissan’s Tochigi plant, designated as the brand’s advanced production base for sports cars, EVs and people movers.Recent teaser images released by Nissan feature an aggressive two-tier nose treatment and the model’s signature dual circular tail-lights.Initially slated for Japanese domestic market (JDM) consumption only, it’s expected to remain a four-door performance sedan rather than making the jump to an SUV or crossover body style.A roughly 300kW version of the 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 engine currently used in the Z sports car is widely expected to drive the rear wheels through an auto transmission, with six-speed manual and all-wheel drive options possible.In a not so subtle reference to the rapid ‘China Speed’ development often attributed to emerging competitors, Espinosa said, "The Skyline is an icon of speed as a car and it’s an icon of speed for Nissan because it’s the first new car to run under our accelerated development process.”He said the use of AI (artificial intelligence) has massively reduced the Skyline’s development period from the usual 50 months to around 26 months and added, “This car proves Nissan can not only make good cars, but also develop them with speed."The Skyline was included in Nissan’s long-term strategic vision announcement, held at the company’s Yokohama headquarters in April, along with the new Elgrand people mover (which launched in the Japanese domestic market in July), X-Trail (Rogue), Juke EV and Xterra.Sale of the sub-compact crossover-style Kicks SUV has also been extended into Europe and the new Murano SUV will be exported to Japan from its US production centre in Tennessee.This new and extended product activity sits within the company’s commitment to “streamline its global line-up from 56 to 45 models, exiting low-performing models and reallocating reinvestment to growth areas.”Nissan is aiming to move on from a financial crisis which saw it record massive consecutive annual losses, including a A$7.0 billion net loss for the fiscal year ending March 2025 and a A$4.7 billion net loss for the year ending March 2026.However, it recorded a profit in this year’s most recent April-June quarter thanks in part to cost efficiencies and increased overseas earnings from a weaker yen.And as part of its strategic vision, Nissan is transforming its industrial model through the ‘Nissan Product Family’ strategy.This will move the company’s focus from model‑by‑model optimisation to platform‑led development across three product families accounting for more than 80 per cent of global volume.The three product family groupings are mid-size (think X-Trail), compact family (think Qashqai/Note) and body-on-frame, the latter initially focused on reintroduction of the Xterra SUV in the US market from 2028, with it and “four sibling spinoffs” to be produced at Nissan’s Canton, Mississippi plant by the end of the decade.

Nissan seems to have dumped its Skyline EV plans in favour of raucous RWD twin-turbo V6 revival.

Overnight Nissan announced its radical Re:Nissan “recovery plan” that hopes to see the company return to profitability by fiscal year 2026, and as part of this it confirmed a range of new models for both the Nissan and Infiniti brands.One of the proposed new models in this plan is a new Skyline.It will be one of the first vehicles for Nissan to be built under a revamped development process that’ll see it reduce engineering costs, complexity and improve development speed.The Skyline nameplate is historic to Nissan and dates all the way back to 1957 when it was called the Prince Skyline.The Nissan Skyline was even produced in Australia in seventh-generation guise from 1986 to 1990.Although Nissan has confirmed a new Skyline is in the works, don’t get your hopes too far up, because this likely isn’t the new R36 GT-R.Japanese outlet, Best Car, known for its industry sources, believes the Skyline will instead be an SUV and will sit above the brand’s current Ariya electric car, and will be a similar size to seven-seat SUVs such as the Toyota Kluger.The rebooted Skyline could borrow tech from the recently announced Ariya Nismo.That car uses two electric motors to make 320kW and 600Nm and provides all-wheel drive grip.Best car's digital render gives a glimpse of what it could look like.The Nissan Skyline currently exists as a four-door sedan, most recently picking up a sportier limited-production Nismo version in Japan.This 13th-generation Nissan Skyline was even sold in Australia as the Infiniti Q50 from 2014 to 2019.Nissan teased the R36 GT-R in 2023 with the radical Hyper Force concept. It was an all-electric supercar with 1000kW of power and a solid-state battery pack.Given Nissan has now paused all new car development beyond 2026, it remains unclear whether the R36 GT-R will actually happen.Previous reports speculated the R36 GT-R would launch in 2028.

The Nissan Skyline, as far as Australia is concerned, is a thing of the past - but that could change if reports from Nissan’s home nation that the storied nameplate is to become an SUV, something Australians buy in droves.

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Here are two facts. For over 60 years Nissan has been on a rollercoaster. And for the remaining six years of this decade, Nissan is set to be on a roll. Not that you’d know it with the Japanese brand’s long-term shrinking market share and – until late last year – a worthy but dull and dated core model range.

Five years ago, this month, Holden became the final carmaker to withdraw from full-vehicle manufacturing in Australia. Predictably, since then, prices of locally-made “metal bumper bar” and high-performance models have soared. Yet – almost unbelievably – there are some increasingly rare Australian classics that are still within reach. Here’s a list of our top five. But you better get in quick!

Will Nissan make a crossover version of the Skyline? And, what happened to these Nissan passenger cars which were once popular in Australia?

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