ICE Navara Pro models possible, says Nissan

Petrol or diesel versions of the new Navara Pro are possible for New Zealand, says Nissan Oceania managing director Steve Milette, though nothing is confirmed.

The Navara Pro arrives here in 2027 as a plug-in hybrid only. Some overseas markets already sell it with a conventional engine, and Milette said Nissan is looking at whether that could work here.

“Is it something that’s available somewhere in the market where we have this new Navara Pro available with an ICE engine? Yes, it is,” he said. “We are exploring if it is possible for our market, but there’s really nothing to announce today.”

The Navara Pro is built in China by Zhengzhou Nissan, a joint venture between Nissan and Dongfeng, and shares its platform with the Dongfeng Z9 ute. In China the Z9 is sold with a 2.0-litre turbo petrol engine or a 2.3-litre turbo diesel, both available with an eight-speed automatic. The diesel is the Renault-Nissan M9T, from the same engine family as the 2.3-litre twin-turbo diesel in the previous D23 Navara. Nissan’s own version, sold in China as the Frontier Pro, has been shown with a diesel engine, while in the Middle East the Navara Pro is sold with petrol power only.

Milette said the same about a diesel plug-in hybrid version of the ute.

“It’s possible. We can’t confirm anything firm today on that, but I do believe that in our market, diesel will continue to be a fuel type in the ute segment late into the 2030s,” he said. “It is something that we are exploring as an opportunity, but it’s not confirmed nor planned at this time.”

In the meantime, the current diesel Navara stays in the range alongside the Navara Pro PHEV. The D27 Navara is built in Thailand and developed with Alliance partner Mitsubishi.

“For now, it is a complementary product in the ute segment for Nissan,” Milette said. “We are a two-truck strategy, the diesel D27 and this Navara Pro PHEV, alongside each other. That’s the plan.”

Asked whether running two separate utes, with two sets of parts and servicing, makes sense in the long term, he left the door open.

“As a long-term plan, I guess anything’s possible. But in the short term, we need the two products,” he said. “In terms of efficiency in the long term, those are things that we are studying.”

Nissan won’t say how it expects sales to split between the diesel and PHEV models, but Milette said the Navara Pro PHEV is a volume model rather than a niche one.

“This Navara Pro PHEV for us is an important model that will deliver mass-market volume,” he said. “In New Zealand, we have 31 sales points all around the country, and we see this as a mass-market player.”

He said preparing dealers for the new ute will follow Nissan’s usual new-model process, helped by the brand’s history with the Leaf and Ariya EVs.

“With our history on Leaf and Ariya, the vast majority of our dealers are trained on all things EV, so that really doesn’t change,” he said.

The Navara Pro PHEV pairs a 2.0-litre turbo petrol engine with an electric motor built into an eight-speed automatic transmission. Preliminary outputs are 300kW and 800Nm, with up to 1000kg payload and 3500kg braked towing, all subject to homologation.