nissan navara n trek warrior oct 2019 12
Bruce Newton11 Nov 2020
NEWS

New Nissan Navara Warrior to retain tough truck character

Halo pick-up has been a sales success, and new model is expected to deliver more of the same

The locally-developed Nissan Navara Warrior will evolve with the latest MY21 series arriving soon, but still retain the beefed-up capability of the original.

A pumped-up version of the Navara N-TREK dual-cab 4x4 with local engineering by consultant Premcar designed to deliver better on- as well as off-road performance, the current Warrior has been a hit for Nissan, swelling its share of the high-end dual-cab 4x4 market.

The new MY21 Nissan Navara will arrive around February next year, with a Warrior version confirmed to emerge from Premcar’s Melbourne assembly line months after that.

Nissan Australia managing director Stephen Lester admitted just how many months would depend on how development of the new Warrior proceeds.

“We are not going to have it available for February next year for sure and the timeline of when it will come will be dependent on all the work we have been doing to this date and all the work we continue to do with Premcar up until the time we physically get here,” he said.

Complicating the timing, Premcar and Nissan are working in parallel on the development of the new Nissan Patrol Warrior that is due in the second half of 2021.

nissan navara pro4x action 55

This time round, the Navara Warrior will be based on the new PRO-4X model, which will replace the N-TREK and be the flagship of the range in most global markets.

“The (Warrior) concept at its very origin was around getting or producing a vehicle that moves into that true off-roader, true lifestyle vehicle with no compromises, and everything we worked into that plan was oriented around that,” said Lester.

“So it won’t necessarily change much per se, because that ethos won’t change.”

Lester made the point the Warrior would evolve courtesy of the MY21 Navara upgrades which includes the tough new exterior looks, added safety features and increased payload capacity.

“But we are not going to all of a sudden sacrifice (capability) by changing it into a concept that is stickers on a vehicle. It still has to be true to form and fit for purpose otherwise it can’t have the Warrior name,” he said.

Like the original, the new Navara Warrior will focus on chassis upgrades and practical and cosmetic equipment additions. There will again be no performance alterations made to the 2.3-litre twin-turbo diesel four-cylinder engine.

nissan navara pro4x action 65

Lester was enthusiastic about the impact N-TREK Warrior has had on sales of more expensive and therefore more lucrative Navara models.

Figures supplied by Nissan show that combined sales of ST-X, N-TREK and N-TREK Warrior (the latter two introduced last year) account for a 10 per cent larger share of total Navara sales in 2020 than they did in 2019.

A decision to green-light a PRO-4X Warrior wouldn’t have required much debate, given Nissan Australia is looking to the MY21 model to rebuild Navara sales.

“We’ve been on a number of occasions this year sold out of inventory,” he said. “We have probably an over-subscribed demand for Warrior in our own existing pipeline to the conclusion of this current generation.

“We saw an immediate impact on our split of models, which is exactly what we thought would happen. We have seen a dramatic percentage increase for N-TREK and N-TREK Warrior beyond what we’d even planned.

“There is consumer demand for models in that range. That’s what consumers are really looking, emphasising and focusing on. That’s what the hypothesis always was. We’re certainly not Robinson Crusoe in that or rocket scientists for the conclusion we have been able to draw.

“But it has worked tremendously well for us.”

The Warrior has also been a great calling card for Premcar with Nissan. High-ranking global product bosses praised the Warrior last week and admitted it served as inspiration for a Ford Ranger Raptor rival that could be part of the next-gen Nissan Navara line-up due around 2024.

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