Everybody knows the Nissan Skyline GT-R from the Fast & Furious film franchise, Gran Turismo games and motorsports all over the world. The Japanese sports car is legendary for its racing success and inline-six engine capable of reliably churning out a ton of power with just simple mods.
However, not all Skylines are created equal. Some get to wear the cool “Godzilla” nickname—the GT-R, that is—while others get relegated to boring commute work and end up as rebadged Infiniti sedans in the United States. And, by the looks of it, the latter will be valid for the nameplate's future, if this report from the Japanese outlet Best Car is to be believed.
As per the source, the next-generation Skyline will become a pair of all-electric vehicles: a sedan and an SUV/crossover/whatever you want to call it.
The publication claims that the SUV version of the revamped Skyline lineup will ride on the same platform as the Nissan Ariya and will offer over 450 horsepower. It’s expected to debut in 2025 and could be sold States-side as an Infiniti—again, this wouldn’t be the first time.
The second new Skyline EV will reportedly be a sleek four-door sedan with a quad-motor setup that’s good for 443 hp, which is more than adequate for the average Joe’s daily needs (nobody needs 1,000 hp to commute.)
This, too, might make its way to the U.S. as an Infiniti product. And, as luck would have it, the upmarket brand revealed the Vision Qe electric sedan concept last month, hinting at what its electric future might look like.
Gallery: Infiniti Vision Qe Concept
Currently, the Infiniti Q50 that’s sold here is–you guessed it–a rebadged Japanese Nissan Skyline. The defunct Infiniti EX and previous-gen QX crossovers were also rebadged Skylines, so there is some logic to the report. But we’d also take the information with a grain of salt, seeing how Japanese enthusiast magazines have been promising the return of a rotary-powered Mazda sports car for a couple of decades.
Nissan, which owns Infiniti, has an ambitious electrification plan that includes no fewer than 27 new battery-powered models (19 of which will be all-electric) globally by 2030. In the U.S., the plan is to have about 40% of the sales volume come from EVs. Currently, Nissan is quite behind in the electric race, with just the Ariya EV stateside and no hybrids in its current lineup. It has a long way to go to meet that electric goal.
What’s your take on this? Does it make sense to go all-electric for the Skyline brand? Let us know in the comments below.
