New Indian-built SUV set to make its South African debut in September.
The Tekton’s styling is inspired by the Nissan Patrol. Picture: Supplied
The Nissan Tekton, the Japanese carmaker’s version of the Renault Duster, is set to be introduced locally in September.
While pricing and specification has not been announced yet, The Citizen Motoring did get a closer look at the incoming SUV during its global reveal in Mumbai last month.
Like the Renault Kiger and Nissan Magnite, the Nissan Tekton and Renault Duster share the same underpinnings and are built alongside each other in Chennai. The Indian-built Duster was introduced to Mzansi this month after being sourced from Romania originally.
Patrol-inspired Nissan Tekton
The Tekton’s exterior styling is inspired by the Nissan Patrol. It features a Nissan-specific grille, inverted L-shaped LEDs with illuminated strip underneath the bonnet line connecting the light clusters.
At the rear, the Nissan Tekton gets a new bumper, restyled light clusters connected by an LED strip and Tekton badging on the tailgate. Like the Renault Duster, the Nissan Tekton has a ground clearance of 212mm.
Inside, it’s harder to tell the two production siblings apart. The Tekton retains the Duster’s 10.1-inch infotainment display and the 10.25-inch instrument cluster in a “single piece” design. The centre console has been redesigned though, while the Nissan SUV also features more upmarket materials as it is intended to be positioned as the more premium of the two production siblings.
Two petrol engines
Up front, the Nissan Tekton features the same two petrol engines as offered on the Renault Duster range. Albeit with slightly altered power outputs.
Similar to the Duster, the 1.0-litre turbocharged petrol mill makes 74kW of power. But it’s 166Nm of torque is six Newton Metres more than its sibling. This engine is paired to six-speed manual gearbox.
The 120kW of power produced by the Nissan Tekton’s 1.3-litre blown mill is two kilowatts more than the Duster. Unchanged though is its 280Nm of torque. Instead of the Duster’s seven-speed automatic, this mill in the Tekton is mated to either six-speed manual or six-speed dual-clutch transmission.
