Nissan is preparing to go radical with its next Z-car and not in the direction that many of us many us would have predicted or, perhaps, wanted.

Take the traditional Z format...

Right now the brawny six-cylinder 370Z lags behind the lighter, nimbler, younger flat-four

Toyota GT86

, but if you think Nissan will be taking the fight to that or the forthcoming Mazda/Alfa MX-5, you'd be wrong, or so we hear.

At the Frankfurt motor show the company's vice president, Brit Andy Palmer, said the new car needs a broader appeal, and that means electric powertrains.

"To me the GT86 and that traditional sleek sports car is very nice but that's not the way I'd like to address the next generation of sports car drivers," he said. The way he tells it, Nissan is looking at alarm at the falling numbers of youngsters taking their driving test and wants to reverse that.

"We need to energise those kids and to me that's where the EV powertrain will rule," he said.

...sprinkle in a bit of yoof friendly ZEOD...

Nissan will also want to address falling sales of the Z cars. As much we have a soft spot for the coupe and roadster, the truth is we're not buying them in significant quantities. In the whole of Europe to the end of July, Nissan sold just 469 of the 370Z. That's a wet Monday morning's worth of sales for the Qashqai and a big reason why Nissan in the UK

slashed the price

by £3,000 back in May.

The 370Z isn't even that old - it was only launched back in 2009. For a company that prides itself on innovation and successfully reinventing niches that's got to hurt. Hence the rethink and one that we're going to see the results of at the end of November during the Tokyo motor show. It's a concept, but one that Palmer has driven so it's obviously not just a flight-of-fancy studio queen. He describes as "engaging, a real sports car."

...and bid farewell to all this!

There'll be plenty to attract traditional Nissan Z-buyers, he reckons. "It'll be smaller, lighter [than the current Z] but not less powerful. There'll always be a high-powered Nismo edition too."