Nissan Patrol, Navara renewal timing uncertain

NISSAN Australia was quick to spruik its standing as the brand with the freshest showroom portfolio in the country at this month’s launch of the all-new Qashqai in Melbourne.

Taking to the stage at the model’s Australian debut, Nissan Australia managing director Adam Paterson said, “We believe that the recent introduction of the Z, Pathfinder, X-Trail and Qashqai give us the freshest showroom in Australia with our new models averaging just 14 months.”

But it seems Mr Paterson was quick to excuse Patrol and Navara from his sums…

The Y62-series Patrol was introduced in 2010 making it 12 years old at the time of publication. Although updated in 2014 and again in 2019, it is essentially the same vehicle that arrived to take on Toyota’s LandCruiser over a decade ago.

As for the D23 (NP300) Navara, it first arrived in Nissan showrooms back in 2014, and went on to deliver the now defunct Mercedes-Benz X-Class in 2017 (which was cancelled in 2020 due to poor sales).

The utility range was updated in 2020 and enhanced with Warrior off-road kit the same year, but like the Patrol retains its original chassis, driveline and cabin equipment, and has no sign of a replacement in sight.

When asked about the obvious gap in Nissan Australia’s refreshed line-up, Mr Paterson said the age of Nissan’s off-road duo did not detract from the fact the local portfolio is one of the youngest available.

“I think the Navara is still reasonably fresh. We are a little over a year and a bit into the current update – that is in showrooms today – so I still think that is relatively fresh in automotive terms,” he said.

“As far as Patrol is concerned, we’ve got product options with Patrol coming up in the second half of next year, and I think that’s a big step forward, or an improvement, as far as that offering is concerned.”

While four-wheel drive and light commercial vehicles usually face longer product cycles than their passenger rivals, it is obvious that when measured against its direct rivals, the Navara indeed squares up as one of the oldest light commercial utilities available Down Under.

Looking through the LCV playlist, we find the T6.2 Ford Ranger was significantly overhauled for 2022, making it the newest offering in the strong-selling market segment until the all-new Volkswagen Amarok lands next year.

The Ford/Volkswagen twins sit ahead of the TF-series Mazda BT-50 (2020) and RG01-series Isuzu D-Max (2019), and facelifted Mitsubishi Triton (also in 2019, but with underpinnings dating back to 2015).

Toyota’s best-selling HiLux was updated in 2020 and previously in 2017, but like the Navara and Triton share origins that date back to the middle of last decade.

Nissan is expected to update the Navara completely for 2024 with a model that will share its framework with alliance partner Mitsubishi, but Mr Paterson said that timeframe has not yet been confirmed.

“I don’t think we’ve announced when there’s going to be an absolute full ground-up redesign,” he said.

As the second-best selling model for Nissan behind the X-Trail, it’s fair to say the Navara forms an important part of the brand’s local playbook. However, year-to-date sales show the Navara is falling well short of its segment rivals in both the 4x2 and 4x4 portion of the category.

To the end of November, Nissan sold just 1650 examples of its two-wheel drive Navara, well behind the segment leading Toyota HiLux (15,903), and still short of contemporaries including the Isuzu D-Max (4031), Ford Ranger (3801), Mitsubishi Triton (3343) and Mazda BT-50 (2230).

The four-wheel drive portion of the segment shows an even greater discrepancy against Navara’s direct competitors.

Year-to-date, the segment is led by the Toyota HiLux (44,217) and Ford Ranger (39,015) with the Mitsubishi Triton (23,039) and Isuzu D-Max (18,744) performing well. Despite being officially on hiatus, the 79-series Toyota LandCruiser (10,452) also outsells the Navara, as does the Mazda BT-50 (9472).

Nissan ranks seventh in the segment with YTD sales of 8348 units – and just ahead of the Chinese-made GWM Ute (6760) and LDV T60 (5361).

As for the aging Patrol off-roader, we find YTD sales of less than half that of its only direct competitor, the LC300 Toyota Land Cruiser. Again, despite significant supply restrictions, the more modern Toyota (11,608) outsells its Nissan contemporary (4997) by a convincing 6611 units.

But Mr Paterson believes forthcoming electrification technologies may help right the course for Nissan’s off-road models.

Mr Paterson told GoAuto News that Nissan’s newly developed E-Power hybrid driveline technology could be readily adapted to give Patrol and Navara a critical advantage over its diesel-powered rivals, offering buyers a petrol-electric solution better suited to long-distance and remote travel than BEV utilities like the LDV eT60.

“In principle, E-Power technology can be applied to other displacement engines and powertrains – it is not something that is isolated to mid-sized SUVs and below,” he detailed.

“The other point is that the Common Module Family (CMF) platform has been engineered to incorporate a wide range of powertrains; and while we haven’t announced that there is a connection between those models at this specific time, it is something that is theoretically possible from an engineering perspective.”