Report: Nissan's COO hints next-gen GT-R could be 100% electric

Around here, Nissan is most often mentioned because of the Leaf electric car. That's not all the company does, though, of course and Nissan's chief operating officer, Toshiyuki Shiga, recently told Autocar that:

The GT-R is part of Nissan's heritage. In fact, since Nissan started as a car company, it has been offering driving pleasure through sports cars.

This admission is precisely why speculation that the hallowed Nissan GT-R could be dropped from the company's lineup due to looming fuel economy and emissions standards doesn't have much merit. There is a possibility that Nissan will consider offering the next-gen GT-R sans a gasoline-fed engine. Instead, the next-gen sports car might use batteries and electric motors to get about. Autocar's interview with Shiga touched upon the likelihood that Nissan's next-gen GT-R could become the company's first all-electric sports car. Though Shiga didn't confirm a battery-powered GT-R, he appears to be open to the possibility:

I can't commit to any new products but, as far as we know, we are keeping this brand, these technologies, and trying to offer sporty cars. I am also thinking of electric vehicles as sporty cars. The market is shifting, becoming more environmentally friendly, so maybe now there is a possibility that even a 100 per cent electric vehicle can be a sports car. We have already developed Infiniti hybrid cars which are quite exciting.

A revised version of the current GT-R with up to 530 horsepower is expected to be confirmed before the end of the year, but the next-gen model, the one that may feature electric power, has yet to be signed off by the company. While we patiently wait for the official word, we'd bet that the folks over at Tesla have fingers crossed in hopes that an electric GT-R is axed altogether.

[Source: Autocar]