Nissan’s new executive team, who is made up of a bunch of enthusiasts, weren’t kidding when they told The Drive, “Nissan is back.” If the stars align fans of the iconic automaker are going to get everything they wanted, and possibly even more. One of those things? A convertible Z, again. In Yokohama, Japan, Senior Vice President and Chief Planning Officer for Nissan North America, Ponz Pandikuthira, exclusively told The Drive on the latest episode of The Drivecast, “I would like nothing more than to see a convertible version of the Z out there.” But wants and dreams don’t get to power decisions fully. The return of the droptop Z is not a lock, yet. Listen to the entire conversation starting at the moment Pandikuthira mentioned the convertible Z’s possible return below. Pandikuthira may be an enthusiast, but is grounded in reality. The SVP of Nissan North America said, “It takes a lot more work, obviously, because there’s things you have to do with stiffness and stuff like that, but we have had a convertible in the two previous generation of Zs and they sold very well. There was a large part of the mix.” What’s it going to take to get the Z convertible back? “Let’s see how successful the company is in the next two years. If we meet those targets that we outlined and things are going really well, that could be something we play with on a Z,” Pandikuthira said. Those targets include product cuts, a refocusing of product and resources, and families of vehicles all laid out in a huge turnaround plan. But Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa told The Drive, “The sports cars are the core of what we are as a company.” This was after Espinosa said he’s like to bring back the Silvia, which Richard Candler, the man in charge of Nissan’s global corporate product strategy, then told The Drive, “We are really deeply looking at the sports [car] lineup again. We all want to do some cool cars.” The passion is here. The desire is here. Now Nissan just needs to sell some new Rogues, launch the Xterra, get on solid footing, and we might just see a new convertible Z before the next-generation car starts development.
