Back in 2018, Nissan cobbled together a Leaf silhouette racecar with twin electric motors producing 240kW and a weight of just 1220kg thanks to a carbon fibre body.
Known as the Leaf Nismo RC, new reports from Japan’s Best Car suggest the rolling testbed may make production after all, potentially to rival the likes of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, MG Cyberster and Alpine A290 in a new era of electric sports cars.
There have been rumours of an all-electric sports car from Nissan for some time, at the affordable end a Silvia sketch in 2022 caused a stir and that was followed by the preview of an EV GT-R at the 2023 Tokyo Mobility Show.
But new information from Best Car has reported suggests the Leaf Nismo RC may end up as a sporty production model — not unlike the Pulsar SSS and GTi-R that Aussies loved to modify in the ’90s and ’00s.
The statistics are pretty impressive, with the twin motors churning out 640Nm along with the power figure, enough to get the demo car from 0-100km/h in just 3.4 seconds. A 62kWh battery could give it a WLTP range figure around the 350km mark.
Despite the second-gen Nismo RC not being designed with eTouring Car World cup (eTCR) or Rallycross specifications in mind, Nissan constructed six mules, some of which were given to motoring media to sample in 2020.
At the time there was no plan to put the Nismo RC into production, but its twin-motor tech has made its way into the 320kW Nissan Ariya Nismo with its all-wheel drive system. Here’s hoping it comes to a smaller, lighter form factor in the future.
And if Nissan’s ‘The Arc’ business plan is anything to go by, there will be space for a model like the Nismo RC, pictured here in renderings by Best Car.
The Japanese carmaker intends to launch 30 new models by March 2027 and 16 of those are going to be all-electric. We’ve got a pretty strong idea about the third-gen SUV coupe-like Leaf and that there will be a smaller, Juke-like EV coming, too.
There will be other new cars, too, with a new Micra — potentially sharing parts with Renault’s new R5 and R4 EVs — possible, along with bigger vehicles like a reborn Odyssey and maybe even a new Skyline range.
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