Nissan's new director is named Ivan Espinosa. And he has always dreamed of reviving both the Silvia and the hot hatch Pulsar GTI-R.
Back in September 2024, Ivan Espinosa was 'only' vice-director of global product strategy at Nissan.
But now the man who got hooked on the Japanese brand is the director of the entire store. And that could mean a new Silvia and Pulsar GTI-R are on the way.
In any case, Ivan Espinosa already said in September last year that Nissan will develop at least a completely new Silvia on its own.
– We have started the initial phases that show what the architecture (the way the car will be built, ed.) could look like, Ivan Espinosa told Australian Drive.
It wasn't long ago that the same Ivan Espinosa made it clear that he believes that car brands have forgotten how to build cars with passion. Young car buyers in particular are being left behind, the new director believes.
– I think that car brands have generally forgotten all about the passion for cars in general.
– Of course, it depends on market conditions, but you can actually see that younger buyers are becoming less and less interested in cars.
Ivan Espinosa also has a plan. At least in his dreams. Because if it were up to him, Nissan would once again build sporty cars that are approachable.
– Depending on which period you look at, we've always had a GT-R, we've always had a Z model, and we've always had a base model like the Pulsar or something like that.
– Today, it's something we're missing in a way, says the director.
And he's right. Earlier this month, Nissan announced that the GT-R order book was permanently closing. After 18 years in production, the coupe with the hand-built V6 engine is coming to an end.
"Now it's a question of how we move into the future. From my perspective, there's an ideal path that's called; a top model like the GT-R with a Nismo edition, a Z model also with a Nismo edition and then a base model with Nismo stuff," Espinosa told Top Gear.
Granted, the Z model hasn't disappeared. But it's a long way from Denmark and Europe in general. In fact, we have to go all the way across the Atlantic to the USA to find a market where the car is sold from new.
