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It’s been a little over a year since Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa told The Drive that “Nissan is back” after… well, let’s just call the last 8 years a rough patch. Tonight, the Japanese automaker is laying out its case with a new long-term strategic plan for Nissan and Infiniti that calls for streamlining and refocusing its product lineup, bucketing models into families for shared costs, and implementing next-gen technology (yeah, including AI) into its vehicles.
Streamlined lineup
The lineup itself, which Nissan says stands at 56 models today, will be cut down to 45 models in the future. Models that will be cut? “Low-performing models,” but don’t expect to see the Z or GT-R nameplates going anywhere. Those will be protected by a new structure that buckets vehicles into four “families”: Heartbeat, Core, Growth, and Partner.
Heartbeat models will be those that embody Nissan’s ideals for its identity and emotion. In other words, stuff that gets your ticker going. If the Z and GT-R don’t do that, then water isn’t wet. Plus, Ponz Pandikuthira told The Drive the next-gen GT-R will be a hybrid that keeps the VR38’s block and arrive by 2030, then work on the next-gen Z will begin. Those icons are safe. The new Xterra is also in the Heartbeat group as it aims at the hot off-road market to steal sales from the Jeep Wrangler, Ford Bronco, and Toyota 4Runner. So is the just-announced next-generation Nissan Skyline sedan, which in U.S. we know as the Infiniti Q50 and very well could be the base of Infiniti’s next sedan.
Core lineup
Growth lineup
Partner lineup
Nissan
Core models are meant to sustain global business at scale with stability. The definition of that would be the Rogue, or as other markets know it, the X-Trail. It will be getting Nissan’s e-Power hybrid system, which is a series hybrid that uses the gas engine as a generator to power a battery pack that powers electric motors driving the wheels. Then growth models are aimed at expanding Nissan’s market share. A new Juke, which won’t come to the U.S., is an example for the European market.
Partner models are said to extend Nisan’s market coverage through collaboration, though the automaker didn’t expand on this. The upcoming Mitsubishi Montero, which is really a reskinned Armada, could easily be classified as this parter model as it’ll give Nissan extra production volume that it doesn’t need to sell at the retail level.
The upcoming product portfolio will be grouped into families of vehicles with shared powertrains and platforms along with software. Three families of vehicles, one being frame-based vehicles, is said to account for up to 80% of Nissan’s volume going forward with only 20% of product falling outside these three families. That 20% will likely include the Z and GT-R, among other models.
Nissan said it will refine its market focus to the U.S., Japan, and China. Notably, Europe was not on the list of key markets.
Sustained growth is expected to carry the automaker to 1 million units per year by 2030 in the U.S. market, according to Nissan. That would be a sales increase of 7.97% given Nissan sold 926,153 vehicles in the U.S. in 2025.
AI for all
Nissan said AI-driven intelligence embedded in its vehicles is core to the automaker’s future vision. AI will be utilized both in advanced driver assistance systems as well as vehicle controls. An LLM partner has not named, but today’s Nissan’s already have Google built-in to their infotainment systems.
Nissan is aiming to have AI technology in 90% of its lineup over the long term, but a timeline was not provided for the rollout.
The first model to debut the AI-embedded technology will be a Japanese-market Elgrand this summer with the automaker’s next-generation ProPilot hands-free driver-assist system with end-to-end self-driving capabilities said to be ready by the end of fiscal year 2027.
Nissan did not provide concrete timelines for the next product lineup.
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As Director of Content and Product, Joel draws on over 15 years of newsroom experience and inability to actually stop working to help ensure The Drive shapes the future of automotive media. He’s also a World Car Award juror.
