Nissan IDx Officially Gets the Axe

Nissan IDx Nismo concept (Credit: Nissan )

It was fun while it lasted, but the Nissan IDx concept is officially dead, for now. This report follows an interview the folks at The Truth About Cars had with Nisan product planner, Pierre Loing.

During the interview, Loing was pretty clear that the IDx was off the table. He 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,” and by “reality,” he mean dollars and cents.

According to Loing, Nissan ran into the same issue that nearly every other automaker has when it comes to developing a small, rear-wheel-drive sports car, and that’s making it profitable. Nissan has only one smallish rear-drive platform, and that underpins the 370Z. Unfortunately, Nissan designed that platform specifically for a big V-6, and it lacks the proportions for downsizing to fit around a small four-cylinder engine.

The alternative would be to build a chassis specifically for the IDx, but Loing doesn’t seem to think the sales volume warrants an all-new chassis at this time.

The conversation continued onto the possibility if the concept making its way onto a front-drive platform. Unfortunately, Loing shot that down too, as the IDx’s proportions are based on a rear-wheel-drive platform, making shifting it to front-wheel drive nearly impossible without a full redesign.

There is one sliver of hope in all of this, and that is that Nissan realizes that buyers are interested in 510-like small cars. With this demand, Loing seems to think that Nissan could take some of these retro styling cues and put them on a performance-oriented, front-wheel-drive platform. If there is one thing that the Nissan-Renault Alliance is good at, it’s building performance-oriented front-wheel-drive vehicles.

TTAC prodded Loing about the possibility of a front-driven performance car based on the styling cues of the IDx, but he would go into any details.