Bad news for European fans of the Nissan 400 Z

The difficult economic situation facing Nissan, together with a European legal framework on greenhouse gas emissions, has been decisive in choosing the markets where the production version of the recently presented Z Proto Nissan prototype will be sold.

According to reports from the Asian country, Nissan will limit sales of the hypothetical Nissan 400 Z to the only two markets where the brand has run the numbers and confirmed that it can sell this retro-styled yet new-generation sports car profitably while also meeting carbon dioxide emission limits: its home market and the United States.

In this way, the vehicle that emerges from the master plan set out in the concept car Nissan Z Proto will be available at dealerships in Japan and the United States, leaving every other country to watch the successor to the Nissan 370 Z from afar, or to resort to the costly, in every sense, import of a car from one of those two countries, the only ones where the brand’s lineup will offer the Nissan 400 Z.

Economy and ecology

Restructuring Nissan’s global plans has meant maximum cost-cutting and squeezing revenue to the limit, and as a result, selling the future Nissan in the Z lineage only makes financial sense in the only markets where this car is expected to be profitable.

As a very specific niche, and with Nissan focused on selling crossovers, even though it offers spectacular sports cars such as the Nissan GT-R and the Nissan 370 Z, whose Nismo version is a true ronin at the service of its driver, the figures show that in Europe and specifically in Spain these cars do not generate enough profit to justify homologating them and stocking them at dealerships.

Given the current situation, in which the European Union squeezes the maximum tolerated limits of carbon dioxide, manufacturers’ catalogs are skewed: vehicles that lack the support of an electric propulsion system cannot drive a single kilometer without exceeding those margins, and the future limits are the most worrying, with 2021 already a serious challenge for the cars that will be sold from January 1 onward.