Wait what? Nissan has designed a perfume that smells of cherry blossom and tyre smoke

Hang on, wasn’t April Fools’ Day almost two months ago? We think someone at Nissan might be pulling our leg, because it has just announced a new and exclusive ‘fragrance’ to celebrate this weekend’s inaugural Formula E race in Shanghai.

Said fragrance – which Nissan is calling ‘Smell My Dust’ – will apparently smell like a heady combination of cherry blossom and tyre smoke. We promise we’re not making this up. 

“Nissan Formula E Team’s new scent combines tones of Sakura, the flower displayed on the cars, with the smell of tyre remnants from the team’s Nissan e-4ORCE 04 race cars to combine a surprising concoction,” says erm… Nissan. 

“A top note of cherry blossom branches and rosemary were combined with burnt sugar and woody tones. The result is a fragrance that embodies the beauty of cherry blossom with the thrill and grit of a racing team.” What on earth is going on?

Apparently a Shanghai perfumer created the fragrance using real remnants of Formula E-spec tyres, and Nissan tells us the Chinese perfume market is currently booming thanks to “Gen Z’s obsession with niche fragrances”. There’s niche, and then there’s wanting-to-smell-like-a-floral-burnout niche.

Anyway, Nissan hopes this stench will connect its Formula E team with a new generation of potential fans, but it also says that “wearing fragrances has been scientifically proven to boost emotions like confidence and self-esteem” so perhaps it’ll get drivers Oliver Rowland and Sacha Fenestraz to splash a bit on before the race this weekend.