There has been a rumor around for months that Nissan is looking to cut the Titan full-size pickup from its lineup, possibly because the model has been underperforming in the sales charts in recent years. New information now says that regardless what happens to the Titan, Nissan will also develop smaller fully-electric pickup that could debut in the next few years.
According to Automotive News, the Nissan Titan could be axed in 2024 or 2025, which is when the electric pickup could debut at the earliest. The source quotes an unnamed Nissan insider with knowledge of the matter, who said about the Titan that “there's no plan engineering's working on for replacing it, updating it. It's dead."
Gallery: Nissan Surf-Out concept
This upcoming midsize electric truck from Nissan may have been teased with a concept called Surf-Out shown in 2021 (pictured above), although don’t expect it to look quite that extreme when it does hit production. The study, which has a see-through front fascia and a digital panel that can display messages on the tailgate, does still hold hints as to what kind of look Nissan will be going for with this model.
It most likely won’t be a single-cab pickup like the concept either. Should Nissan choose to enter the midsize electric pickup segment and was planning on delivering a single body style, it will probably be some kind of crew cab design – it would be an electric alternative to the Frontier, which was updated last year and will surely stick around until the EV arrives.
Nissan Dealer Advisory Board Chairman Tyler Slade does not think abandoning the full-size pickup segment is a good idea. He believes that having pickups in several segments is key to these vehicles’ commercial success, although he does admit that having an electric equivalent to the Frontier in the range would make a lot of sense for Nissan.
He also believes there is economic incentive for truck customers to switch from burning fuel to fully-electric since “trucks typically get the worst gas mileage, so making them electric will reduce operating costs.”
This electric pickup might be one of the two EVs that Nissan intends to build in the US, at its Canton, Mississippi assembly plant. The manufacturer previously announced that it would invest in this factory to prepare it for EV manufacturing and that the first EVs would start rolling off the production line here by 2025.
