Nissan is planning to drop its full-size Titan pickup on the finish of the 2024 mannequin yr, because the pickup didn’t make a dent in Detroit’s dominance of this section.
Automotive News reported the transfer, and it confirms the same report by Motor1.com from November 2021.
According to somebody who spoke to Automotive News and is accustomed to the mannequin’s future — or lack of 1, “There’s no plan engineering’s working on for replacing it, updating it. It’s dead.”
Industry analysts don’t anticipate the pickup to get replaced as soon as the present technology runs its course via the 2024 mannequin yr.
“The full-size pickup market is a really tough market to crack,” Sam Fiorani, vice chairman, Global Vehicle Forecasting, AutoForecast Solutions LLC, advised TheDetroitBureau.com. “We were kind of surprised there was a second generation.”
When requested to remark, Nissan spokesman Colin Price mentioned the Titan was, “an important part of Nissan’s showroom, and we’ve seen a positive impact from Frontier in driving added awareness and consideration for our full-size truck. Titan remains in Nissan’s truck lineup for the 2022 model year and beyond.”
Lackluster retail demand
Yet Nissan’s full-size pickup has by no means lived as much as its title as a gross sales Titan.
While gross sales rose 3.5% in 2021 to 27,406 models, up from 26,439 in 2020, demand within the first quarter of this yr dropped 14% to six,415 models, an annualized promoting charge of 25,660 models, or 6.4% decrease than 2021’s full-year gross sales, good for 1.4% market share within the full-size house.
To put these first quarter numbers in perspective, Toyota bought 22,643 Tundas within the first quarter, 71.7% greater than Nissan, whereas Ford outsold Nissan by 95.4%, promoting 140,701 F-Series pickups.
A Titan in title
The Titan debuted on the North Americana International Auto Show in Detroit in 2003, reaching showrooms later that yr as a 2004 mannequin. Executives anticipated to promote 100,000 models by pricing the Titan as a lot as $4,200 lower than comparable home full-size rigs. Certainly, the prospect for fulfillment appeared promising. Nissan proved profitable promoting its smaller pickups within the U.S. market within the Nineteen Seventies and ’80s, and there appeared little purpose to suppose the Titan wouldn’t show each bit as profitable.
But it wasn’t.
Full-size truck-driving shoppers wouldn’t abandon their loyalty to Fords, Chevrolets, GMCs and Rams for a Nissan, as they anticipate an enormous assortment of variation, with totally different engine and seating configurations — one thing the Titan didn’t supply, no less than initially.
When it debuted, the Titan was obtainable solely in four-door Crew Cab and two-door King Cab configurations, a Regular cab wasn’t obtainable. And it solely supplied one engine, however it was a great one: an all-aluminum 5.6-liter V-8 good for 305 horsepower and a most towing capability of 9,500 kilos for the King Cab and 9,400 kilos for the Crew Cab.
If at first you don’t succeed
That modified for 2017, when the Titan was redesigned. Unlike its predecessor, it was supplied in Single Cab, King Cab and Crew Cab configurations and powered by a 5.6-liter V-8 with 390 hp and 394 lb-ft of torque via a 7-speed computerized transmission.
Nissan additionally launched the Titan XD, which was a bit extra muscular the half-ton Titan, however not fairly the three-quarter ton truck you would possibly anticipate. Offered solely as a crew cab, with a 6.5-foot-bed, and four-wheel drive, its 5.6-liter V-8 engine produced 400 hp and 413 lb-ft of torque via a 9-speed computerized transmission.
Nissan additionally added a Cummins 5.0-liter turbodiesel V-8, with 310 hp, 555 lb-ft of torque and a towing capability of 12,830 kilos.
Nissan was now providing the big range of fashions supplied by Detroit, and what ought to have been supplied when the truck debuted.
“It had all of the right pieces to be a hit,” Fiorani mentioned.
But you by no means get a second probability to make a great first impression, and the anticipated gross sales improve by no means materialized.
A change goes to come back
The Cummins engine was dropped together with the Single Cab mannequin for 2020, when the Titan and Titan XD have been up to date with new front-end fashion and LED taillights. But it appeared little greater than culling what wasn’t promoting, because the Titan’s 7-speed computerized transmission was changed by a 9-speed transmission, and the inside was up to date with an 8- or 9-inch infotainment display and extra horsepower for the 5.6-liter V-8.
But the next yr, Nissan withdrew the Titan from the Canadian marketplace for 2022.
While the corporate is stating it stays dedicated to the Titan, the success of the Frontier pickup and the corporate’s upcoming plans for extra EVs doesn’t sound promising for a pickup that’s on the backside of its market section — a spot it’s held for its 18-year existence. And being that the Titan is the final automobile constructed on its platform, it appears unlikely to exist past the present deliberate manufacturing run, because the Nissan Armada is constructed utilizing the Nissan Patrol’s structure, and has for a number of years.
And the Canton, Mississippi plant the place the Titan and Titan XD are constructed additionally assembles the Altima and Frontier. The Titan’s demise might unencumber house for added Frontier manufacturing, which has confirmed way more profitable.
Certainly, Nissan’s crack on the full-size pickup market has failed.
“When Toyota has difficulty getting into market as a significant player, Nissan is certainly going to have trouble,” Fiorani mentioned.
Source: www.thedetroitbureau.com
