Not a lot is known about Nissan’ s next Z-car. Early
in December of 2014, Nissan’s vice president and global head of marketing, Roel
de Vries, hinted that the 370 Z’s successor could have a variety of engines,
depending on a given market. Then, a week later, word spread that the next
Z-Car would be launched as a convertible (they were calling it “The Z”) and
would probably have a 2.0-liter, turbocharged, hybrid engine.
Once that news hit the world, things went stagnant
for a while – until June of 2015, when Shiro Nakamoa, Nissan’s senior vice
president, and chief creative officer, came out and admitted that the Z-car
idea needed to be “rethought.” He also strongly hinted that the upcoming car
would be smaller and lighter, potentially looking back to the roots of the
original Datsun 240Z. Once that news broke, the information trail went cold,
and we’ve been left waiting.
TopSpeed went ahead and rendered up what the next Z-car could look like. Of course, it
is a bit smaller and low slung, but it also shares some design cues with the
current Nissan Sentra and Nissan Murano. The hole rendering is speculation
based on what we’ve heard in the past and Nissan’s current design styles, but
we think we have nailed it pretty well.