Despite the affinity of vanadium for hard and highly electronegative ligands, vanadium nitride complexes remain surprisingly rare. Furthermore, in most structurally characterized vanadium nitride derivatives the nitride ligand acts as a bridge between two or three vanadium centers. Here we describe the preparation and structure of [IMesH]⁺[CpV(N)Cl₂]^- ([IMesH]⁺ = 1,3-bis(2,4,6-trimethylphenyl)imidazolium; Cp = cyclopentadienyl) featuring a very short terminal VºN bond. The vanadium nitride containing anion, [CpV(N)Cl₂]^-, is also of interest as it is isoelectronic to the well-known CpV(O)Cl₂, which is a useful starting material for a wide range of organometallic vanadium oxide species. [IMesH]⁺[CpV(N)Cl₂]^- will similarly serve as a convenient entry point into vanadium nitride chemistry.