NISMO: Now it's 2016

Nissan's NISMO high-performance brand will not launch in Australia until 2016.

And when it does launch it won't be with a three-model range as originally envisaged, but via a single model with other cars to join later.

The awesome 447kW GT-R NISMO (pictured) is vying with the 260kW 370Z NISMO for the honour of flying the flag for the sub-brand in Australia first, with 160kW JUKE NISMO RS expected to come later.

"There will be NISMO-branded products in Australia next year," said Nissan Australia CEO Richard Emery. "But I don't know how many there will be."

NISMO was first touted for Australia back in 2014 and has been scheduled and re-scheduled several times since, much to the frustration of Emery, a former Mercedes-Benz executive who understands the power of a performance badge, courtesy of the success of AMG.

"You have to make sure that decision is the right one on a global scale," Emery told motoring.com.au about the deliberations over NISMO.

"Adding another level of complexity to those NISMO models for another market which is small volume is just hard to get through all the ticks through all the people who have to sign the piece of paper."

While Emery was keeping his commentary pretty diplomatic, motoring.com.au understands the problem lies with limited production runs of the NISMO product allied with strong demand in existing markets, such as North America.

The launch of NISMO in Australia is understood to have strong support at the upper management level in Japan, including NISMO president and CEO Shoichi Miyatani, with whom Emery met to discuss the matter while at the Le Mans 24 Hour earlier this year.

But the process is said to have struck processing issues further down the management chain.

Emery admitted he didn't know which Nismo model would come first, but confirmed it would be one of the two Japanese-built sports cars rather than the UK-built frog-eyed SUV, which offers a 13kW power upgrade over the JUKE TI-S already sold here.

"It will either be Zed or GTR," he said. "It just depends on engineering timing more than anything else. Paperwork."

Nissan Australia plans to establish a dedicated network of NISMO dealers, which is expected to expand from the 12 current 'High Performance' GT-R dealers.

But investment in specific showroom areas for the model range is likely to be on a case-by-case basis because of the staggered arrival of the cars and the limited volumes expected.

"The execution of how that [NISMO] looks in a dealership is still to be determined based on how much volume there is," Emery admitted.

"If a dealer is going to get access to 10 NISMOs a year then he is not going to go and put extra investment into a facility.

"He might put aside a space, but that discussion with the network about investment in NISMO space or environments will be connected to how many cars we can access."

The NISMO name abbreviates Nissan Motorsport, which is currently gaining some profile in Australia via the company's involvement in V8 Supercars racing with a four-car Altima squad run by brothers Rick and Todd Kelly.

Emery revealed earlier this week a review of Nissan's V8 Supercars program is underway and a decision on whether it will continue beyond 2016 will be made late October or early November.