It will be the third or fourth generation of the truck, depending on who you ask, but it will probably stray even further from the days when the same truck was sold in the US and before the two diverged.
This teaser for the new Navara comes from Nissan Australia, a country where the pickup is an icon. For 40 years, versions of the Navara have been put to the test in the country's punishing environments and terrains. Like the ad says, from the worksite to the boat ramp, the truck is a staple in the country. Nissan has sold nearly half a million trucks in the small market.
Nissan Australia says that the newest Navara has been designed specifically for that country. Nissan isn't the only one to use the isolated continent to develop its global small truck. Kia, most notably, did the same with its first-ever pickup, the Kia Tasman, which went on sale earlier this year.
We can't see much of the new Navara in the teaser, but there are some details poking through the darkness of the shots. The roof of the cab looks familiar, though there's not too much that a truck maker can do up there. The teaser does show roof rails on the quad cab for extra cargo-hauling space or sleeping in the Outback.
The nose has slim accent lights that are similar to those on the Nissan Patrol SUV, sold as the Armada in the US. But the rest of the nose doesn't appear to take much from that other big Nissan.
40 Years Of Navara History
Navara dates back to 1985 for Nissan and Australia and New Zealand. The D21-generation truck was sold in the US as the Hardbody, and it lived well into the 2000s in some markets.
A new truck arrived in 1997. This one, called the Frontier in the US and once again the Navara in Australia, was similar around the world. International markets like Australia saw a different grille than the US. They also got a series of turbodiesel engines to give the trucks much more torque and better fuel economy than offered in the US. The third generation, or D40 truck, which went on sale in 2004, was also a near-twin to the US-spec Frontier.
It wasn't until 2014 that the two trucks really diverged. The NP300 Navara that launched that year was smaller than the US-spec Frontier. It used its own chassis, and that generation spawned badge-engineered versions from Mercedes-Benz, Renault, and Chinese automaker Dongfeng.
Nissan's latest truck is believed to share a lot of its underpinnings with the Mitsubishi Triton/L200. That truck is another international small truck staple, and under Nissan's alliance with Mitsubishi and Renault, it is able to share much of that company's technology. In 2023, reports hinted that the Navara would get a big upgrade in the form of Mitsu's Super Select II 4x4 system, which would allow for full-time 4x4, not just part-time operation.
It's unlikely this generation will have much impact on America's Frontier, but it's worth keeping an eye on just in case.
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