Updated three years ago, with production moving to South Africa the following year, the D40 Navara has nonetheless been on-sale for almost a decade globally. Image: Nissan
Officially one of the oldest bakkies in its class on-sale today, Nissan has reportedly indicated that the all-new Navara will become a reality in 2025.
Well-known to ride on the platform of the already revealed new Mitsubishi Triton, the replacement for the current D23 Navara that debuted nine years ago will continue to offer a mix of petrol and diesel engines, but for the first time also a hybrid in the form of a plug-in hybrid.
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Set to arrive either a year after or in the same timeframe as the next generation Toyota Hilux, prior reports of the Navara going electric have all been ruled for now due to a slower uptake in key markets where sales will take place.
“I think in ASEAN the internal combustion is still going to be around for a while for applications like pick-ups. And diesel has very good qualities for pick-ups towing because of the torque delivery and other things,” Nissan’s Head of Product and Product Strategy, Ivan Espinosa told Australia’s carsales.com.au on the sidelines of the Tokyo Mobility Show in Japan this week.
Admitting that the capacity within the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance does exist for a battery electric bakkie, Espinosa said Nissan will look to its partners when picking eventual engine options for the Navara, saying, “the good thing is we have choices on the shelf, either own or together with our alliance partners.
“We have diesel engines available, petrol engines available, the wonderful e-Power [range extender hybrid] … and we have battery EV, as well as plug-in hybrid with Mitsubishi. The beauty we have is choice.”
In China, Nissan partnership’s with Dongfeng Motors has since 2017 resulted in an electric bakkie, the Rich 6, whose petrol and diesel engines options are supplemented by a 67.9-kWh battery producing a combined output 120 kW while allowing for a range of 403 km.
Despite the presence of the mechanically related Frontier in North America, which makes use of a normally aspirated 3.8-litre V6 petrol only, the Navara won’t revert to a large displacement engine as the preceding D40 did with its 4.0-litre V6 and much vaunted 170kW/550Nm 3.0-litre V9X turbodiesel V6.
As such, expectations are the Navara will drop the current 2.3-litre and 2.5-litre oil-burners for the Triton’s upgraded 2.4-litre 4N16 that comes in three states of tune; 110kW/330Nm, 135kW/430Nm, and with the addition of a second turbocharger, 150kW/470Nm.
“Today the global trend is not towards bigger engines – yes, toward more power through electrification – but bigger engines not so much,” Nissan’s Product Planning Development Head, Pierre Loing, was quoted by the publication as saying.
Only introduced to South Africa in 2017 as an import after numerous delays, production, after a global facelift in 2020, has since 2021 been taking place at the Rosslyn Plant outside Pretoria for both the local and Sub-Saharan African markets.
As assembly is expected to continue, expect more details surrounding the new Navara to become more apparent throughout 2024.
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