Titan EOP dashes hopes of big Nissan ‘ute' for Oz

THE surge of interest in full-size, American-sourced pick-up trucks has come too late for Nissan Australia with the recent announcement that production of its Titan ‘ute’ has come to an end in North America.

Speaking to GoAuto at the recent launch of the Patrol Warrior in Tasmania, Nissan Australia managing director, Adam Paterson, said that although following the likes of Chevrolet 1500 (via General Motors Special Vehicles), Ford F-150 (via Ford Australia and others) and Ram 1500 (via Ateco) down the right-hand drive conversion path had been considered, the success of the Warrior program had leveraged better returns.

“Obviously, we had thought about it, and the benefit of having the wide global range that we do is that we have a large portfolio of products that we can work to try and bring to market if they fit,” he said.

“In the last little bit (four years), I believe the efforts that we have put in with regards to the Warrior program has delivered more volume and satisfied more customers in Australia than would have been the case were we focused on a full-size pick-up.

“We also felt that work and challenge and market for the Titan would be better invested in our existing Navara and Patrol – the one-tonne (market) is a far larger market here than the full-size market, which made it a better business decision.”

In hindsight, any decision toward a right-hand conversion program for Titan would have been short-lived.

Nissan recently announced the end of production for its Titan for the United States, following the cessation of the model for Canada back in 2021. Production of the body-on-frame ‘truck’ for the US market is scheduled to come to an end within weeks.

“Production of the Nissan Titan is schedule to end summer 2024 at our Canton plant in Mississippi,” said Nissan North America in a statement.

“Under Nissan’s Ambition 2030 vision of an electrified future, we are accelerating the process of transforming the Canton plant with the latest in EV manufacturing technology. This will (allow us to) support production of two all-new, all-electric vehicles.

“Titan has been an important nameplate for Nissan in North America for 20 years, and we’re grateful to the dealers, customers and thousands of employees who have played pivotal roles throughout Titan’s lifecycle.”

Compared to its rivals, the Nissan Titan failed to generate the level of buyer interest required to keep the model afloat.

With only V8 petrol and Cummins-sourced V8 turbo-diesel options available, the Titan did not offer more efficient powertrains to compete with its nearest competitors, selling just 52,924 units in its best year (and 2.2 market share points) against a projected 100,000 units (and 5.0 market share points).

In the United States last year, the Nissan Titan sold a total of just 15,063 units – or roughly double that of the combined number of American-sourced pick-ups sold in Australia during the same period.