Nissan North America is beefing up its large pickup lineup with the first-ever regular-cab version of the Titan. The 2017 Titan regular cab and Titan XD regular cab are aimed at the commercial, fleet and work truck market.
They are scheduled to reach U.S. showrooms in late fall.
“This is where we see a huge opportunity that we’ve never been able to reach before,” said Rich Miller, Nissan’s product planning director for trucks, SUVs and commercial vehicles. “This is the basic work truck. It is the contractor, the welder, the guy with the generator in the back.”
The Titan, redesigned for 2016, will eventually come with three cab configurations — regular cab, crew cab and a future king cab — and three bed lengths, three engines and five trim levels.
The regular cab variation is expected to account for 15 percent of Titan sales once the full line is on the market, Miller says.
The Titan XD regular cab will be equipped with a Cummins 5.0-liter V-8 turbodiesel engine or a 5.6-liter gasoline V-8 engine. The Titan single cab, which has a shorter wheelbase than the XD, will come with the V-8 gasoline engine only, but a V-6 engine will be added later.
The regular cab version of the Titan, a rugged but affordable entry point for the work-truck market, represents Nissan’s biggest step to vie for U.S. commercial truck users dominated by the Detroit 3.
“This version of the Titan plants a flag in the ground that we’re here to compete for the full-sized commercial vehicle business,” says Phil O’Connor, Nissan’s director and chief marketing manager for trucks. “It allows us to get on the shopping list of commercial fleet buyers for the first time.”
U.S. sales of the Titan edged up 0.8 percent to 6,099 vehicles in the first half of the year.
Pricing of the Titan regular cab will be announced closer to market launch.
Nissan has been tripping for decades as far as trucks are concerned. For decades if you wanted something simple like a regular cab short bed baby pickup like Toyota made you got a truck that not only Nissan didn’t even have locking diff’s for but no aftermarket diff either since nobody wants to tool up(not even a manufacturer model to copy) for the 300 they might sell per year. Forget about a diff for the front too. I bought one back in 84 thinking with their new independent 4wd front end they would be leading the market in a few years. So Toyota does the same thing the next year plus adds fuel injection that gobs more torque and would run rings around the Nissan. After having to pay uber bucks for something as simple as an end gate handle I gave up on them. A diesel engine on a full size truck, a good start but we’re still waiting for Toyota to make a frame that can handle a big gooseneck trailer so……….
I get the feeling that Toyota is observing Nissan. Nissan takes all the risk. If the risk turns into reward, Toyota could easily swoop in and take over. Toyota has a great reputation, while Nissan doesn’t as much.
I’ll bet that if Nissan sees success in this endeavor, Toyota will be the biggest winner.
Sounds like that could be good news for the lower end of the full size pickup truck market.
I am a bit confused on the engine choices and the cab and bed length configuration. With the regular cab and short bed is only the V8 available (with the V6 to follow)? But with the regular cab and long bed both the V8 and diesel? Or is it an upper trim level too to get a diesel? Bit confusing.
What I don’t get is why fairly plain models aren’t generally available from any of the pickup truck makers. Yes, you can “build” them on the websites, but they aren’t any copies of them in dealer lots (do you have to go in and order them?). There has to be lots of contractor, fleet type buyers who want to buy the bigger engines, axles etc but still have plain trucks with vinyl seats, basic radio and no carpet.