No longer locally produced, the so-called "evolved" D23 Navara will receive a new exterior and interior, but keep the 2.5-litre turbodiesel engine.
The so-called “evolved” or facelift D23 Nissan Navara will come to South Africa in 2026. Picture: Nissan
So far only seen in a single teaser image released last year, Nissan South Africa has confirmed that the revised Navara will make its local market debut later this year.
Imported D23
No longer locally produced following the acquisition of Nissan’s Rosslyn plant outside Pretoria by Chery earlier this month, the Navara will again become an imported model with sourcing taking place from the Samut Prakan facility in Thailand.
The same plant it originated from until local production commenced at Rosslyn five years ago, the South Africa-bound model will, however, be a continuation of the current D23 that made its world debut in 2014.
Reportedly set to be revealed first in Latin America, where it carries the Frontier name – no relation to the US model of the same name – the D23 will have a restyled design and what Nissan called at the time of the teaser image’s reveal an “enhanced infotainment and an impressive suite of advanced driver-assist technologies”.
This means that South Africa will forgo the new Mitsubishi Triton-based D27 Navara that has only been approved for Australasia.
As such, both models will wear the Navara name in a dual-capacity role, the D23 continuing with the coil-spring rear suspension setup and the D27 inheriting the leaf springs from the Triton.
2.5 staying
“We are still working with Thailand as to how soon we can bring it to market. There will be some change to adapt it for our market, but we will still have in this final year,” recently appointed new Nissan South African Managing Director, Juan Wheeler, told The Citizen at the launch of the facelift X-Trail on Tuesday (21 July).
While the final specification remains unknown, Wheeler did confirm that South Africa-bound models will retain the 2.5-litre YD25DDTI turbodiesel engine instead of reverting to the 2.3-litre YS23 that became obsolete following the start of local production in 2021.
More soon
For the moment, no further details are known, though expect more to emerge soon now that a 2026 market arrival has been approved.
