Nissan Navara SUV Wagon Coming

The five-link rear suspension to the new Navara raises an obvious question: is there an SUV coming to sit on this platform?

TMR can now confirm that an SUV wagon, sitting on the New Navara platform, is “in the works".

Chief engineer of the new Navara, Mr Takashi Fukui, confirmed to TMR at the launch of the new Nissan Navara that he and his team were now working on an SUV.

The new Navara was four years in the engineering. I asked Mr Fukui if the SUV was “four years away”, he said, “No, one year".

That means thing are well advanced, and, as that five-link rear suggests, an SUV version was part of the original brief in the development of this platform.

Indeed, Victor Nacif, General Manager, Global Product Communications, had earlier confirmed to me that Nissan has plans “to develop other products from this platform”.

So what will it look like? Most likely a Navara with a wagon back. (Pictured above and below is a rendering by independent artist, Theo Chin.)

That will take this product ‘back to tors’, back to the original Pathfinder which sat a wagon hat on Navara 4X4 underpinnings.

And surely, this is the gap that has now opened in Nissan’s global product portfolio, and an opportunity begging in Australia.