The brand is committed to its Supercars programme in its current guise until the end of next season, which means the V8 engine and Altima body shape will continue in the sport until at least that point.

But from there, changes could be on the horizon. According to Emery the process of evaluating the future of the programme is already underway, a process that will determine firstly whether the programme continues or not, and secondly what happens to the V8 engine and the Altima body shape, which is no longer sold in Australia.

“I think we've always consistently said we want to be in motorsport. That's a global attitude, not just a local attitude,” said Emery. “It's just making sure we have the right local decisions to fit in with the global programme.

“We are reaching a critical point again in terms of where this programme, as in with Supercars, is.

“That kind of timetable is no different to what it has been the last couple of years in terms of where they're at making their decisions globally for next season. And we've certainly been keeping in contact with those who are involved in that process from a global motorsport perspective.

“It's not imminent in terms of where we're at. At this point in time we'll be using the same package again here next year, but I think that's basically what everyone's going to be doing. So at this point in time yeah, we certainly haven't made any calls on that. We've still got to make sure that whatever we do fits in with the global stuff, as you’d expect.

“Once they get closer to some of those [decisions], and I'm not close enough to know how close they are to making some of those decisions. I'll know when I need to know. That will steer us somewhat as to what we finalise our '19 programme onwards.”

Advantage in engine switch

While Nissan will run its V8 engine next season, a continuation of the programme from 2019 onwards would likely coincide with a switch to a smaller-capacity turbo power plant.

Given the brand’s GT, Sportscar, and Super GT programmes run out of Japan, Emery says there are a number of options available, and that Nissan would be at an advantage compared to other manufacturers like Holden, which is currently developing a GM-based twin-turbo V6 for Supercars.

“Particularly the relationship with Nismo in Japan, their core business is engines,” said Emery.

“There's obviously derivatives of our Sportscar endurance engine that was used in a number of different forms. It's in LMP3 now, LMP2, GT3 of course. There's plenty [of engines], they're not off the rack and have to have a lot of work done on them, but I suspect our path to being ready is a little bit shorter perhaps than [Holden’s].

“That's not to say we could put off the decision making, but certainly there's a number of options available to us, not just that engine but there's also the SuperGT engine. There's a number of different engines we could choose to use.

“I wouldn’t say there is definitive ‘okay we’re working on that engine’ at this point of time. But we now have options, and some of the engines we have in our global programme might work.”

Emery added that while a decision might not be imminent, the sooner an engine is locked down the better it would be for a potential 2019 programme.

“The conversations we have with these guys (the Kelly Racing team), they'd like it to be further advanced,” he said.

“That's just the reality of corporate life in terms of honing to a particular decision to a particular engine.

“Look, I think we probably can do it quicker than others because of how much NISMO is an engine business in its kind of base line, and on top of that there is an obvious engine in existence that's a package conversation, a tuning conversation, rather than starting from scratch – which is of course what we had to do here [with the V8].

“You still want to have plenty of time, more time than you need because you never know what's going to happen. I would say, in an ideal world – and I'm a corporate guy, not a motorsport guy– we're probably leaving it too late. But that's the way corporate life leads.”