When the new Nissan Terra officially went on sale in China in April 2018, the body-on-frame SUV featured five seats and a petrol engine. But now that the Navara-based model has launched in South East Asia, the Japanese automaker has confirmed that will it also be built in right-hand drive, seven-seater guise, powered by a diesel engine.
And while the Terra has yet to be confirmed for South Africa (in February, Nissan SA would tell us only that it was “working closely” with its parent company to “develop a vehicle that is suitable to the sub-Saharan market”), it’s likely this is the version of the SUV that will one day make it to our shores.
Set to be built at Nissan’s production hub in Thailand, the Terra will take on the likes of the Toyota Fortuner, Ford Everest, Mitsubishi Pajero Sport and Isuzu MU-X, and can be considered the spiritual successor to the Pathfinder.
Nissan claims that this latest version of the Terra seats seven people “comfortably” (with a “full flat second-row seat folding and tumbling function”) and boasts “best-in-class cabin space”.
While the China-spec model is powered by Nissan’s 135 kW/251 N.m QR25 four-cylinder petrol engine, this latest version employs the brand’s YD25 2,5-litre four-cylinder turbodiesel, which churns out 140 kW and 450 N.m (interestingly, the same outputs as the twin-turbo 2,3-litre manages in the Navara bakkie … and, by extension, some variants in the Mercedes-Benz X-Class line-up).
Interestingly, at 4 885 mm long, 1 865 mm wide and 1 835 mm tall, the seven-seater Terra is slightly longer and wider than the China-spec model, although its ground clearance is the same at 225 mm.
