The next generation of Nissan’s Titan pickup truck is scheduled to arrive somewhere around 2014 and could be joined or even proceeded by a heavy-duty version. The news comes from a report by PickupTrucks.com, after an interview with Larry Dominique, vice president advanced and product planning and strategy at Nissan North America.
Despite making up only a miniscule segment of the truck market (2.11 percent to be exact), Nissan execs have repeatedly enforced the automaker’s commitment to offer a light duty full sized pickup truck. Initially Nissan was working with Chrysler to develop a new truck based on the Ram 1500, but after Chrysler’s bankruptcy proceedings and takeover by Fiat, the new Chrysler company broke off the agreement.
With the Titan’s future uncertain and market conditions unfavorable, sales plunged throughout the year, but Dominique believes the truck may have hit a turning point as original buyers seek to replace their trucks with new models.
Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn has said publicly that Nissan without Chrysler’s help, Nissan will go it alone, developing an all new Titan from the ground up.
Dominique is currently putting together a proposal for his bosses that would see the Titan and a heavy duty Titan share some exterior and interior parts, but with different frames. Ideally, this would lower production costs, while expanding Nissan’s share of the truck market.
With a date of roughly 2014 to the new Titan the current truck could have a production run of 11 years. Nissan will attempt to keep its truck fresh and competitive with updates from other trucks, like the Armada and Infiniti QX56.
[Source: PickupTrucks.com]
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I represent a service body manufactuer. There is a market for such truck providing a mininum of 8600 GVWR/3/4ton production. Is a diesel on the radar?
January 18th, 2010 at 9:15 pm