Nissan Navara to get bigger diesel

NISSAN is believed to be planning another diesel engine for its new-generation Navara to sit above the all-new 2.3-litre units that will be available from launch early next year.

Speaking at the D23 Navara international launch in Thailand this week, Nissan product planner Keno Kato said that a larger diesel is a possibility for the one-tonne truck, but not for the time being.

Australian Navaras will receive the smaller of the two turbo-diesels – an all-new YS23 2.3-litre four-cylinder engine available in two guises – a 120kW/403Nm single-turbo Medium Output 140kW/450Nm and a twin-turbo High Output unit.

This compares to the outgoing D40’s YD25 2.5-litre diesel that is currently offered in 106kW/356Nm, 120/403Nm, 126kW/403Nm and 140kW/450Nm iterations depending on model and specification.

While a variation of that four-pot engine will power the new Navara in some overseas markets, increasingly strict emissions regulations have ruled it out for Australia.

The same regulations will probably exclude the proposed Cummins 2.8-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel that is currently being evaluated by the American media in a prototype version of the D40 Navara-based, American-built Frontier.

It has been reported overseas that if the Cummins engine deal does get the green light it will not happen in the D23 Frontier for a number of years yet.

In any case, Nissan Australia general manager of communications, Peter Fadayev, told GoAuto that a Chinese-built Cummins unit would not be seen in any locally bound version of the next Navara at this stage.

“It is not intended for Australia,” he said.

If the Navara does gain a larger diesel engine it will probably be engineered in-house due to the level of expertise available.

The YS23 unit is a fourth-generation unit co-developed with Nissan’s Alliance partner Renault, and will be debuting in a number of other commercial vehicle applications for both brands in the near future.

Models that will potentially receive the engine include the all-new Trafic and Master vans.

With Euro-6 emissions capability, it is likely that any 2.8-litre to 3.2-litre engine development within the Alliance would most likely be based on this new engine family.

At the Thailand D23 Navara event, Nissan insiders said four-cylinder engines would only power the truck in the foreseeable future.

Since 2010, top-line ST-X versions of the D40 have been available in Australia with the Renault-developed 170kW/550Nm 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel.

But this has been discontinued due to its inability to meet future pollution regulations.

The new Navara will also be made available with the X-Trail’s QR25 118kW/231Nm 2.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine.