The R35 Nissan GT-R first arrived on the scene when dinosaurs still roamed the earth. It witnessed the rise and downfall of the Roman Empire, accompanied the great explorers on their journeys of discovery, was a muse for the sculptors of the Renaissance and watched smoke plume from factories during the Industrial Revolution.
Okay, not really, but it launched in 2007 and is only going out of production in 2025, which is an absurdly long time for a car to stay on sale. Now its time is up, though, we have to turn our attention to the next big question: where’s the R36?
Nissan GT-R R35
Rumours of a successor to the R35 have bubbled away for years now, even as the old car has plodded on in production. It looks like we’ll be waiting a while longer yet, but it seems an R36 is indeed in the works. Here’s everything we know about it so far.
In short, yes. It’s likely still early on in development, but after several years of ultimately non-committal hints from Nissan execs, the brand’s European vice president of marketing and mobility, Arnaud Charpentier, told Auto Express in May 2025 that “There are people working on [a new GT-R].”
Nissan Hyper Force concept
We don’t know when it’s likely to arrive, and Charpentier went on to say: “When, how, honestly, this we don’t know.” Nissan has some rather bigger fish to fry at the moment as it tries to get out of the financial strife it’s found itself in – it’s about to cut around 20,000 jobs and has paused development on several upcoming models.
We’re still likely a long way off even getting a sniff of a prototype being tested, then, let alone seeing the finished car, but it’s reassuring to know that it’s at least in the works.
At this point, we have no idea. We can, however, look back at a couple of concepts that might give us a hint.
Nissan Concept 2020 Vision Gran Turismo
Firstly, there’s Nissan’s entry in the Vision Gran Turismo project, which sees manufacturers design a concept for the Gran Turismo video game series. Nissan’s Concept 2020, debuted way back in 2014, when the R35 was a sprightly seven years old.
Never explicitly stated to be a glimpse at a future GT-R, it nonetheless carried several hallmarks of the car and its Skyline-badged predecessors: a front-mounted twin-turbo six-cylinder engine (now part of a hybrid system) driving all four wheels, a 2+2 cabin, and styling features like those iconic quad circular tail lights.
Nissan Concept 2020 Vision Gran Turismo
That concept’s name led many to assume that we might see a new GT-R in 2020, but that year came and went without so much as a hint of the R35 disappearing.
In fact, we’d have to wait until the 2023 Tokyo Motor Show for our next hint at a future GT-R, when Nissan debuted the Hyper Force concept. Once the shock of its super-angular bodywork had worn off, we could once again see plenty of GT-R family commonality in its overall silhouette and, once again, those distinctive rear lights.
Nissan Hyper Force concept
The big difference with the Hyper Force is that it’s fully electric, which leads us to our next question…
For some time, it’s been assumed that any new GT-R would be a full EV. The company has long been publicly committed to an all-EV future in several markets, and last June, announced plans not to develop any all-new internal combustion engines.
However, things have changed rapidly in the car industry in the last couple of years, with several manufacturers scrapping plans to go all-electric by a certain date in the face of weaker-than-expected demand for EVs. This has been particularly prevalent among high-end performance cars, where it’s becoming clear that buyers still crave a petrol engine.
As far back as last July, Nissan told Car Throttle that the car "would be at least electrified if not fully electric."
Most recently, Hiroshi Tamura, a former GT-R product planner at Nissan, told Top Gear: “I’m not sure it will be 100 per cent EV… but if customers accept a hybrid, it probably might happen.”
Nissan Hyper Force concept
Tamura no longer works at Nissan in an active capacity – he’s now a brand ambassador, so doesn’t have any actual input into the company’s products. However, Nissan will undoubtedly be watching the performance car market closely, especially under its new boss and the man tasked with reversing its fortunes, self-professed car enthusiast Ivan Espinosa.
If we were really to get the rumour mill fully cranking, part of the turnaround plan involves rebadging a number of cars from Renault, a company Nissan has long had close ties to. Renault’s performance subsidiary, Alpine, has just confirmed its plans to produce a 1000bhp+, V6 hybrid supercar.
Nissan Hyper Force concept
Could that serve as a springboard for a new electrified GT-R? Only time will tell, but the GT-R badge has always had its own distinct identity that Nissan will doubtless want to preserve for the new car.
One thing we can be fairly certain of is that the R36 won’t feature a pure combustion engine – global emissions regulations will likely prevent that, and some form of electrified powertrain, whether a hybrid or a full EV, is more aligned with Nissan’s goals as a company.
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