Future Nissan Sylvia.
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Nissan‘s new CEO has already been quoted wishing for a new Sylvia coupe. The car we’ve known here for decades as the Nissan 200SX and 240SX could make a comeback. The illustration above shows what the new Nissan Coupe could look like.
Last year, Ivan Espinosa, before he became CEO of the company, had already mentioned a possible future Sylvia. “There is a chance. It’ll be a challenge, but it’s my job to find ways to do stuff like this because I think it’ll be great for customers and the brand, and if I can put the right formula in place, we could make it work”.
When asked about a new design, he answered ” very early upstream exercises”. That means someone, somewhere, has been drawing new Sylvias.
Mr.Espinosa will start at his new CEO job next week and now has much more power to push a new Sylvia through.
However, Nissan really needs to make some money right now. All the future projects they just teased a couple of days ago are SUVs. Which does make sense. Except for the new Sentra and a new Verda for the South American markets. Nissan has many platforms to use if it wanted to. However, most of these are either FWD or AWD. Unless they use an EV platform that can easily support RWD.
As far as powertrain, a new Sylvia could be a great way to use the new 3rd generation version of their e-Power system. Although that will be introduced in the US next year with the next-generation Rogue.
A new Hybrid Sylvia would compete directly against the upcoming all-new Honda Prelude Hybrid.
The new Prelude is basically a new Honda Civic coupe with its own design. And a more powerful Hybrid powertrain. It is also a FWD car. While the good old Sylvia was always RWD. If that matters to current car buyers.
I personally think the new Nissan Leaf platform would be a great donor for a new 2-door electric Sylvia. The new Leaf is still expected to cost around $30,000 or just a bit more. That could keep a new Sylvia affordable, as it should be. The Civic Hybrid Touring I drove a few weeks ago was already over $33,000. And you know the Prelude will be even more expensive.