Before anyone reading this headline gets too excited, Nissan has not officially confirmed a new S platform sports coupe (i.e. Silvia / 240SX) is headed for production. Everyone, calm down. But a ray of hope might be piercing the darkness. Finally.
Before going any further, everything I’m about to dig into goes back to Fall 2024. There have been no further updates in 2025, at least not yet.
With that said, the reason for optimism is due to a Motor1.com article from last September. In that story, Ivan Espinosa, who was Nissan’s chief planning officer before being promoted to CEO in March, told Australia’s Drive magazine that planning exercises for a new sports car are underway. This process was termed “upstream exercise”, which boils down to building a business case that includes early planning and development.
Now, Motor1 chose to run with a screamer headline with their article suggesting a new Silvia is officially on the way, but I think we should pump the brakes a bit here. What Espinosa told Drive sounds like routine automotive business planning, the sort of processes Nissan subjects all cars to before pushing the button for production. Or not. The process itself doesn’t confirm a car has been greenlit.
Espinosa, in a nod to the reality that it’s too early to confirm anything, chose his words carefully when speaking to Drive.
“I'm not sure we're going do it, just to be 100% clear, but It's something that I would like to do if we, if we can. I'm trying to make it work, I'm trying to make it happen. It's not an easy case. It's not easy because the sports cars market is shrinking," he said.
The article goes on to mention the difficult realities of sports car development, including high costs, small sales volumes, and whether manufacturers should go it alone or partner with another automaker to share costs, such as with the Toyota 86 / Subaru BRZ twins, and BMW Z4 / Toyota Supra.
Espinosa appears to shoot down the notion of working with another automaker but acknowledges development costs for niche products like sports cars can be deal-breaking. Sounds like cooperation might not be completely off the table, but we’ll have to wait and see.
As for what this new Silvia would look like or what sort of propulsion it would have, we really have no idea. Motor1 suggests it won’t be pure gas, given strict European emissions standards, so some form of electrification is all but certain should it return.
The article features a bunch of old IDx Nismo and Freeflow concept pics from 2013-14 (which I’ve also included here), which surely won’t be a part of a next gen Silvia’s styling, although they’re cool in a, “hey, remember these things?” kinda way. So, there’s a lot we don’t know. Basically, we know nothing at this point.
However, what bodes well for the Silvia’s return, which the Motor1 article didn’t mention, is Espinosa is a huge Silvia fan. He’s been trying to bring the Silvia back for years – his career with Nissan began in 2003, not long after S15 production wrapped up – and told Car and Driver that he thinks winning back enthusiasts to Nissan would be good for the brand.
“It’ll be a challenge. But it’s my job to find ways to do stuff like this because I think it’ll be great for customers and the brand, and if I can put the right formula in place, we could make it work,” he said in a July 2024 interview.
Sounds like Silvia fans might have a real reason for hope. They just need to be patient.
Photos courtesy of Nissan
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