It’s official, the Nissan IDx is dead, as Pierre Loing, vice president of product planning for Nissan North America, has confirmed that there just isn’t a business case for a production version of the concept car.
The Nissan IDx has been a bit of an on-and-off concept car, as initial reports indicated that the concept’s warm reception would likely result in a production version of the rear-driven, four-cylinder sports coupe. A later report claimed that the Japanese automaker had de-emphasized the model.
The latest report stems from a conversation between The Truth About Cars and Loing. During this chat, Loing said, “IDX is an interesting project; a show car that received good reception. But, to go from concept to production, the reality always kicks in.” The reality that Loing is speaking of is that the bean counters need to make sure the model will result in at least a little profit.
Apparently, after much consideration, Nissan decided that profiting from the IDx simply isn’t a reality. The big issue is that the small, rear-wheel-drive coupe doesn’t have a chassis to call its own. Developing a new chassis for such a low-volume vehicle wouldn’t make business sense for Nissan, and the 370Z’s platform isn’t scalable down to the size the IDx needs.
Despite the fact that the IDx may be dead, its retro looks could live on in a performance-oriented, front-wheel-drive coupe. Sure, its proportions would be very different, but the Datsun 510-like styling cues could see their way to said performance coupe.
Considering the fact that the Nissan-Renault alliance is no stranger to performance front-wheel-drive cars, this wouldn’t be a difficult undertaking.
Continue reading for the full story.
Nissan IDx Dropped; Its Styling Will Inspire Other Products originally appeared on topspeed.com on Sunday, 31 May 2015 23:00 EST.
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