In a blockbuster announcement overnight Nissan has officially revealed that its next-generation Navara ute will launch in Australia within 12 months and share its platform with Mitsubishi's new Triton.
The news of the next Navara’s coming was part of a wide-ranging announcement by Nissan's top brass from its global headquarters in Japan which included the company’s future model plans and even arrival timings in each market.
The biggest news for Nissan in Australia is the Navara ute which is the second-most popular model for the brand here after the X-Trail mid-size SUV. But with sales for 2024 totalling 10,063 the Navara is far behind the top-selling Ford Ranger which tallied 62,593 sales. With this current generation Navara being more than ten years old now Nissan desperately needs this next-generation ute to compete.
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Now we officially know when the new generation Navara will arrive in Australia. A global statement says the ute will appear in the 2026 Japanese financial year and that it would be the result of Nissan’s partnership with Mitsubishi which presumably would also gain its new Triton from the agreement.
“FY26 will see a significant number of new models introduced including.. an all-new one-ton pickup (leveraging Nissan's partnership with Mitsubishi Motors),” the global statement reads.
FY26 means anytime between April 2026 and March 2027 (the Japanese fiscal year) which is still a rather large time frame, but having spoken to senior Nissan executives in the past we can narrow this down further - to most likely before the end of 2026.
During an interview with Nissan’s Chairperson of the AMEIO Region, Guillaume Cartier, Australian media was told the Navara would be on Australian soil in 2026. Not only that but Cartier also outlined to us that the diesel variant would eventually be phased-out and replaced with a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) before going fully-electric at a later date. Cartier also confirmed the partnership with Mitsubishi would be the source of the Navara's underpinnings.
"We need to make sure that if we electrify, how we electrify. I think it will be a two-step approach, first with a PHEV solution, then later on with EV," he said.
"That's what we're looking at, but first it will be with a diesel approach.
"On the first one we are with Mitsubishi, but the next one we are looking at. Because there is also technology we have in-house, which is solid-state battery, but that will take time. We are piloting at the end of 2024, but that is really the game-changer. If this technology is as successful as we believe, we can electrify cars that are today unable to be electrified.".
Drawing on previous conversations with senior Nissan executives in the past we also know that the next generation Navara is likely to come with a hardcore Nismo variant to take on Ford’s Ranger Raptor.
In an interview last year with Nissan's vice president of product strategy and planning Ivan Espinosa CarsGuide asked if a Navara Nismo would arrive in the next generation.
"This is something we are looking at. You could imagine seeing something along those lines with the partners we are working with on (Navara)," Espinosa said.
What would power and Navara Nismo? Well, as much as we would like to see the Patrol Y63's twin-turbo 318kW 3.5-litre V6 go into the engine bay of the Navara, Espinosa had his doubts.
"I don't know that (the engine) actually fits, to be totally honest with you." Mr Espinosa says.
"Whether I would like to do it? Maybe yes, it would be a great truck to dream about. But at the moment there's no real plan to share with you."
Whether the Navara Nismo makes it to reality or not is yet to be seen - and now it finally appears we will certainly start to see Nissan’s plans unfold over the next 12 months.
Along with confirmation of the next generation Navara, Nissan also used the global announcement to reveal that Nissan fully electric Ariya would arrive this year and the new-gen Patrol would arrive in Australia before early 2027.
