Established in 1984, Nissan Motorsports International Co., Ltd. or NISMO is a fully-owned subsidiary of Nissan that once concentrated solely in the brand’s motorsports activities. Today, not only are they responsible for developing and selling competition cars, engines, and parts, but they have also started developing and selling of full-on Performance Packages, performance parts, and tuning packages.

Though there have been ups and downs within NISMO itself, they have entered a renaissance of late thanks to the leadership of Mr. Takao Katagiri. Apart from serving as NISMO’s President and CEO, Mr. Katagiri is also the President and CEO of Autech Japan, Inc. (a subsidiary that focuses on tuning and converting Nissan cars) and more notably, the head of the NISMO Business Office of Nissan.


Sitting in the board of both Nissan and NISMO enables Mr. Katagiri to move with a much better synergy. It allows NISMO to quickly transfer motorsports know-how to Nissan road cars, creating sportier and more engaging vehicles in the process. In fact, this is something Nissan is striving for, moving forward.

Currently, NISMO is offering their Performance Package on cars such as the GT-R, X-Trail, and Almera. The NISMO Performance Package integrates sporty driving and styling by fitting a complete offering that includes not only aero parts, but suspension, tires, wheels, and exhaust as well.

Moving forward, Mr. Katagiri is aiming to make NISMO much more global and accessible at the same time. By this, he is expecting that more Nissan vehicles will benefit from a NISMO Performance Package in the near future. Though unusually tight-lipped, he has at least identified four vehicle categories that Nissan is currently looking at.


The first three are pretty obvious: the first is the GT-R sports car; the second is their compact car offering (though Mr. Katagiri didn’t specifically identify the Sylphy); and the third is their Electric Vehicle or EV (could be based of the Leaf NISMO RC, which is, currently a fully-working race car). The fourth one is a very intriguing category to say the least: SUV.

When Mr. Katagiri mentioned this, the first thought that crossed everyone’s mind is the Juke or X-Trail—after all, they’ve received NISMO treatments already in Japan. However, Mr. Katagiri is quick to clarify his statements and said that when he meant SUVs, it also includes pick-ups.

This statement pretty much confirms two things: first, that Nissan is pretty much confirming that they’re working on a 7-seater SUV based off the NP300 Navara platform; and second, that the NP300 Navara itself is setting a tasty NISMO Performance Package as well. Personally, we’re hoping that the NISMO Navara would go more along the lines of its past Dakar Rally Raid cars—that would be pretty awesome.