Nissan Z waiting list tops 1200 cars, Z Proto numbers still secret

The born-again Nissan Z is a victim of its own popularity as waiting lists for the Japanese sports coupe stretch well into next year.

Nissan Australia has more than 1200 orders for the Nissan Z, a number that continues to grow, but only delivered 10 cars to owners in November 2022, according to industry sales data.

The total number of deliveries since sales began is just 84 cars.

Meantime, Nissan Australia still refuses to outline exactly how many of the special edition Z Proto Spec have been allocated locally. Japan and North America each received 240 examples (a nod to the original Datsun 240Z), however it is unclear if Australia will receive 240 examples.

Drive has been told Nissan Australia has more than 500 orders for the Z Proto Spec, which means at least half of those in the queue could miss out.

“We have closed customer orders for the limited-edition all-new Nissan Z Proto, and predict these will be delivered to customers by the end of March 2023,” a Nissan spokesperson told Drive while answering questions about the delivery delays on the new Z.

Nissan Australia has conceded it has received more orders than cars when it comes to the Z Proto Spec allocation.

“I know in other markets they've said they've launched an exact total number. We will have a cap at some point, and it is still a limited edition, but that total number has not been landed on,” the managing director of Nissan Australia, Adam Paterson, told Drive.

“We're not going to continue to order that throughout the lifecycle of the car, but the total volume still hasn't been finalised.”

Meantime, customers in the queue for the regular Nissan Z face a longer wait.

“We currently have around 1200 customer orders for this vehicle.  With good volumes of vehicles arriving over the next few months, we predict we will deliver these orders to customers by mid-2023.  This timing will vary depending on the customer’s desired colour and transmission, as well as their location,” a Nissan spokesperson said.

In addition to the new Nissan Z, Nissan Australia is predicting better supplies for other models in 2023 including the recently-introduced Pathfinder, X-Trail and Qashqai family SUVs.

“We continue to expect to have order banks for the first half of the year. (But) stock for Nissan is significantly improving over what we have over the course of the last 12 months,” Mr Paterson, told Drive.

“We're definitely improving over where we've been over the course of the last 12 months. Have we rebounded to a free-demand type scenario? No, we're not there yet.

“One thing that I keep reiterating is that the last 12 months are supply based, not demand based. Nissan globally is not at a free-demand type of position.

“So we'll see improvements, but next year will be a significant growth year over the year that we just came out of, and we expect the year after that to be a growth year as well,” Mr Paterson said.