Car and Driver has managed to get its hands on a trademark application for a new logo from Nissan, which contains “Pure Drive” and “R-Hybrid” labels. Nissan already uses the Pure Drive designation on some of its more fuel-efficient offerings but R-Hybrid is new and may hint at a new performance-oriented hybrid in the works at the Japanese automaker.

More interesting still is the design of the letter R used for the label, which resembles the design of the same letter in the GT-R badge affixed to Nissan’s flagship sports car. Nissan is reported to be considering adding hybrid technology to its next GT-R, the R36, so perhaps we might see this new logo appear on that car.

It’s more likely, however, that Nissan will use the R-Hybrid designation on a range of sporty hybrids in the near future, rather than just the GT-R. Toyota recently revealed its own “Hybrid-R” badge, which it plans to use on future performance-oriented hybrids and will be giving us a taste of what to expect in the form of the Yaris Hybrid-R concept at the 2013 Frankfurt Auto Show next month.

Note, Nissan and Toyota aren’t the only automakers looking into performance-oriented hybrids; Acura plans to launch a new NSX with hybrid technology in 2015 and Mitsubishi is tipped to add some hybrid tech to its next Evo. Then there are the new crop of hybrid supercars like the Ferrari LaFerrari, McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 Spyder.

Stay tuned for an update.

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