A fresh report out of Australia suggests that Nissan is still considering building a high-performance version of the Navara, with talk that it may even boast the Nismo badge.
Speaking to motoring.com.au, Ashwani Gupta, who heads up the Renault-Nissan Alliance’s light commercial vehicle unit, said that the Japanese automaker would be closely monitoring the sales performance of the new Ford Ranger Raptor.
“We have to see how the customer is reacting to our competition. We’ll see how the customer accepts that,” Gupta said.
He told the Australian publication that Nissan had the means to drop a big turbodiesel V6 into the Navara should that be what the customer wants.
“We have all the options open to do that. We have all the engines available if the customer is asking for it and willing to pay,” Gupta said. “We are studying, so it’s not a technological issue for us. We are studying everything, so we have to wait a little bit.”
Stephen Lester, Nissan Australia managing director, added that there was no reason the proposed high-performance Navara could not wear the Nismo badge.
“The [Nismo] brand itself would have a lot to weigh-in on, but look at the way the brand resonates around the world and if there’s an opportunity to leverage that then, I don’t see why not,” he told motoring.com.au.
Nissan in the United Kingdom recently unveiled its Navara Off-Roader AT32 double-cab bakkie, built in partnership with the folks over at Arctic Trucks (and pictured above).
