2018 nissan navara
Bruce Newton22 Feb 2018
NEWS

Nissan to study Navara Raptor fighter

Ford Ranger Raptor-rivalling Navara super-ute study underway at the urging of Nissan Australia

Nissan could develop a Ford Ranger Raptor-style Navara sports truck at the urging of its Australian division.

And the hi-po Nissan Navara pick-up could be powered by the stonking 3.0-litre turbo-diesel V6 from the new Mercedes-Benz X-Class.

Nissan Australia MD Stephen Lester and his team have taken the chance to lobby for a wild high-performance Navara with Renault-Nissan global light commercial vehicle boss Ashwani Gupta, who is making a lightning visit to Australia for this week's launch of the Series 3 D23 Navara.

Gupta told motoring.com.au this evening the concept would be studied.

“If you would had asked me this question yesterday [about a Raptor rival] I would have said this is not in our priority list,” Gupta said.

“But if you are asking this question today then I am saying this is an opportunity we would like to study.”

Gupta made clear his interest in the concept had been stimulated by a meeting with Lester and his team and that Australia was driving the one-tonne product development debate within the company globally.

“I think the transformation which we are seeing in the one-tonne pick-up market is driven by Australian voice,” he said.

The Australian-developed Ford Ranger Raptor was unveiled in Thailand earlier this month, complete with Fox off-road suspension and a new 157kW/500Nm bi-turbo 2.0-litre diesel engine mated to a 10-speed auto.

It is the second ‘one-tonne’ off-road racing replica pick-up to be unveiled, following on from North America’s Chevrolet Colorado ZR2, which has the choice of petrol and turbo-diesel engines and employs a Multimatic suspension system.

Despite striking suspension issues in Australia, Gupta expressed his confidence the D23 Navara would be up to the job if it was tuned for higher performance.

“If we need to upgrade tough and smart Navara to the sports grade we can do it very easily,” he said.

“But the most important thing is which powertrain we adopt.

“That is the study which we need to do.”

Which is where the X-Class comes into the equation.

The Benz is a modified version of the Navara built on the same Nissan assembly line in Spain and uses the same Nissan 2.3-litre four-cylinder engine.

But while the Navara has no V6 turbo-diesel option – unlike the previous-generation D40 Navara – the X-Class will offer a Mercedes diesel V6. Could that flow back to Nissan?

“We have every technology to do that … the question is we study and if it makes sense for the customer and the business we will do it,” said Gupta.

“We have not yet checked it, but for sure from today we will study … what kind of specification we need.”

Intriguingly, Gupta’s responsibilities also cover the LCV models of Nissan’s alliance partners Renault and Mitsubishi. Could there be a Raptor-like Renault Alaskan or Mitsubishi Triton?

“We have three distinct brands so if Mitsubishi customer is asking for it we will consolidate the request, if Renault is asking for it we will consolidate the request.

“Obviously, the synergies between the three brands are important to make the cost of the technology more optimised.

"We have every technology to do it ourselves,” Gupta added. “We have Nismo, we have Renaultsport [and Mitsubishi Ralliart].

“I think it is more a question of ‘does the customer exist?’, which I think is evolving and ‘what is cost of technology and time to market?’. These are the two things which will be answered during the study.”

Lester said the concept of a higher-performance Navara was appealing.

“When you see how quickly the Australian market is evolving you can see the potential in this [Navara] range,” Lester said. “Credit to some other brands who have snapped that up.

“It behoves me and the rest of the team to exploit these opportunities to the best of our ability.

“As a true car guy my imagination is limitless with what I would like to see, but it’s up to individuals like Ashwani and up to create business cases that make that vision really possible.”

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