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Nissan Australia’s managing director is not mincing his words about the “critical” next-generation Navara, emphasising the fact the Japanese brand “wants to get it right”.
Speaking with CarExpert, vice president and managing director for Nissan Australia, Andrew Humberstone, claims the new Navara “will meet all of the market’s expectations”.
“It’s such an important product for us, we have to get it right. You cannot make a mistake with that product,” Mr Humberstone said.
“There are lots of players in that market. It’s a critical market and a critical segment for us, and critical for the dealer network.
“The timing of the launch is critical, because I want to make sure I have the right volume, the right timing, the right pricing, the right quality, the right engagement across the range and aligned with Premcar, for example, in terms with what we do with a Warrior.”
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Mr Humberstone added: “[The launch timing] is where the elasticity is at the moment, in terms of the discussions we’re having with supply chain and manufacturing”.
Effectively the pre-launch discussions around market timing for Australia revolve around whether Nissan Australia wants to do a staggered rollout for the next-gen Navara, or wait for everything to be available at once.
“Are you going to be ready with this? With that? Do you want to launch with two variants? Do I want a top-down strategy or a bottom-up? Am I going to have to wait six months to get the top of the range – we want to get it right,” Mr Humberstone said.
When asked about timing of a production reveal for the new Navara, Nissan’s local director said “we’re hoping to probably have something around November in terms of ‘in-market’ to show you”, referring to internal dealer briefings and potential media access.
This indicates the final version of the next-generation Navara could be revealed in the fourth quarter of 2025, with a market launch slated for the 2026 Japanese fiscal year – i.e. April 1, 2026 to March 31, 2027. This likely means the next-generation Navara won’t hit Australian showrooms until the second half of the 2026 calendar year.
Interestingly, Nissan has only teased the facelifted NP300 Navara/Frontier that will arrive in Latin American markets during the 2026 Japanese financial year, despite this and the next-generation pickup for Oceania being confirmed in the same global announcement.
Above is a teaser image of the facelifted model for Latin America, showing a more futuristic front end in line with some of the brand’s newest and upcoming models. It’s unlikely this new Navara will be getting any form of electrification, despite the new-age face.
Meanwhile, the upcoming Thai-built next-gen Navara, which is destined for the Oceania region which includes Asia and Australia is a new “one-ton pickup” will “leverage Nissan’s partnership with Mitsubishi Motors”.
Further, Mr Humberstone also indicated the brand’s local division is also looking into the potential of the Frontier Pro Plug-in Hybrid – revealed at last month’s Shanghai motor show – for the Australian market to take on plug-in utes like the BYD Shark 6, Ford Ranger PHEV and GWM Cannon Alpha PHEV.
“I see no problem with that running in parallel to new Navara. It’s about ‘does the business case work?’ I think it takes about six months to get right-hand drive. I think it could potentially work for the market,” Mr Humberstone said.
“What we’ve been told officially – this is a joint venture with Dongfeng, obviously – the car is available for export, we are one of the markets which could be considered. I think it could be a very interesting product for us to look at. I think it could absolutely fit.”
Stay tuned to CarExpert for all the latest
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