Nissan has placed another old performance name back into discussion, this time through comments from Richard Candler, the company’s global corporate product strategy chief. The topic surfaced soon after fresh optimism around the future of the Nissan GT-R, and the next badge mentioned was the Nissan Silvia.
Candler told TheDrive that the company is “really deeply looking at the sports lineup again,” then added, “we all want to do some cool cars.” He tied the idea directly to personal history, saying his first car was a Silvia. His wording became even clearer after that: “I’d love to bring back that nameplate. I do think it’s really valuable.”
Inside Nissan, the sports range is already framed around two known pillars. Candler said, “with Z and Skyline, we start to bring back a good lineup.” He followed with another line aimed at Silvia itself: “I think there’s still space for Silvia, and we’d like to.” The condition attached to such a return sits in pricing and placement, since he described “the right positioning” as the key issue and also stressed “price accessibility.” He closed that thought with a broader statement, saying, “sports cars are the core of what we are as a company.”
The discussion does not stop at Silvia. Candler also admitted a separate ambition for a smaller entry point, saying, “I’ve got an ambition personally to find something maybe even smaller than that.” That opens space for an extra model below Silvia in Nissan’s performance ladder.
One proposal mentioned around that idea points toward the old Nissan IDx Freeflow together with the Nissan IDx Nismo. Both concepts appeared at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2013. In such a structure, a compact new entry model would sit lowest, Silvia would take the middle position, and a fresh Nissan GT-R R36 would stay at the top.
The last production Silvia, still gives the clearest reference point. The final S15 reached the market in August 2002. Nissan ended production after slightly more than 43,000 units at the Nissan Shatai plant in Japan.
That car used front-engine, rear-wheel drive architecture and rode on the Nissan S platform. Buyers had two body styles, two four-cylinder engines, manual and automatic transmissions, a length of 175 inches, equal to 4,445 mm, and curb weight ranging from 2,646 to 3,197 pounds, or 1,200 to 1,450 kg, depending on specification.
For now, Nissan has offered no launch date, no approved project, and no technical outline beyond those internal ambitions voiced by Candler.
