Nissan Exec Wants an Electrified Silvia That Could Battle GR86, BRZ, and Miata

At the moment, Nissan has two sports cars: the GT-R and the Z. The former is positioned at the high end of the market and departing it soon, while the latter sits somewhere in the middle. However, according to Nissan’s Vice President of Global Product Strategy Ivan Espinosa, the brand is trying to add a third, entry-level sports car to the mix—and it may bear the Silvia name.

“But I’m trying, as I said and I keep saying it in my brain, three sports cars in my line-up, a GT-R, a Z, and something else. And this something else in my brain is called the Silvia. Now, will we do it? I’m trying,” Espinosa told Australian media in Abu Dhabi, according to Drive.

If Espinosa’s dreams of a new Mazda MX-5-fighting Silvia become a reality, it will have at least some form of electrification. While Espinosa wouldn’t commit to either a hybrid or a battery-electric vehicle (BEV), he was clear that this mythical coupe wouldn’t be purely piston-powered. Thankfully, regardless of its powertrain, if a Silvia does get the green light it will be a global car—one that will likely come to North America. “You need to find something that can work globally in order to have enough scale,” he said.

He also suggested that, whatever the Silvia ends up being, it would have its own in-house-developed architecture and he’d prefer Nissan didn’t join forces with any other automaker to build it, as Toyota did with the Supra and GR86.

“I, personally, I don’t know what the company will do, but I will personally advocate to not [partner with another brand],” Espinosa said. “Not on these kinds of cars and also because it’s one of the things that Nissan can do very well.”

If Nissan does revive the Silvia, I hope it keeps its true name in the United States. The last two generations of Silvia that were sold here, the S13 and S14, wore the 240SX nameplate. And while that moniker does have significance to American buyers, the Silvia name wouldn’t just have Nissan fans drooling—it’s also much cooler.

The bad news is that none of this is happening anytime soon, if it even happens at all. “I’m trying to make it work, I’m trying to make it happen,” he said. “It’s not an easy case. It’s not easy because the sports cars market is shrinking.” And even if Espinosa’s dreams come true, the new Silvia likely couldn’t bow until the end of the decade at the earliest.

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