Nissan says the GT-R will be back with hybrid power and boldy promises it will once again be faster than a Porsche 911 around the famous Nurburgring race track.
The Nissan GT-R supercar will return packing Porsche-pummelling hybrid power according to the car maker’s United States (US) chief product planner.
A successor to the R35 GT-R had previously been confirmed but recent restructuring at Nissan suggested it may be cancelled or be offered only as a battery-electric model as previewed by the 2023 Nissan Hyper Force concept.
Speaking at the 2025 New York International Auto Show, Nissan USA’s chief product planner Mr Ponz Pandikuthira told Motor1 a new GT-R will use hybrid power and will have to land as big a blow to the Porsche 911 as the previous R35 GT-R did when it launched globally in 2007.
The comments come only weeks after new global CEO at Nissan – Mr Ivan Espinosa, who began in the role on April 1, 2025 – hinted a successor to the R35 GT-R would be part of the car maker’s line-up as it looks to recover from huge financial losses and slow sales.
The R35 GT-R – powered by a 3.8-litre twin-turbocharged V6 petrol engine with all-wheel drive – set a record lap time (7 minutes 38 seconds) around the famed Nurburgring circuit in Germany in 2007.
It then went faster to repeatedly set new records in 2008, twice in 2009 and beyond.
“That's what established the car’s cred,” said Mr Pandikuthira, “that it beat a Porsche 911 on its home turf – that needs to hold good [for a new model].”
“It has to be a very authentic car – imagine if you did a front-wheel drive electric car and called it a GT-R – good luck, right?” he said.
“It needs to be authentic to its roots, and it needs to have a Nurburgring performance record.”
The Nurburgring is a 20.8-kilometre race track in the Eifel Mountains in Germany, west of Frankfurt, and is used by almost every car maker for testing due to its variety of corners, surface changes and mix of technical and fast sections.
The quickest lap around the 20.8km circuit was set by the most potent 441kW NISMO GT-R – ‘NISMO’ short for ‘Nissan Motorsport’, the high-performance arm of the car maker – with a 7 minutes 8.679 seconds time in 2013.
While still impressive more than a decade on, the goalposts have since been moved significantly by the German car maker, meaning a considerable gain is needed if a new GT-R is to match the most capable Porsche 911s, with the first ever hybrid 911 arriving in Australian showrooms in 2025.
The fastest non-modified Porsche production car Nurburgring lap was set in 2022 when a 911 (992) GT3 RS posted a 6 minutes 49.32-second time.
The Nissan will hunt the Porsche’s time using hybrid power, said Pandikuthira, as it also faces even faster versions of the 911 – such as the 2026 Porsche 911 GT2 – as well as increasingly tough emissions laws.
“Those big horsepower cars are simply not going to meet emissions standards, so it’s a matter of where the tech catches up with us,” Pandikuthira said.
“Battery tech, motor tech – and it may take us a few years – but GT-R will be back, without a doubt.”
