Can MY21 Nissan Navara reclaim sales?

Considering the cascade of heavily updated and all-new pick-ups now on sale, is the midlife update of the Nissan Navara enough to staunch its sales downturn?

Nissan Australia predictably says yes, but of course we won’t start to find out if that opinion becomes fact until early next year when the 2021 Nissan Navara starts to roll into – and out of – showrooms.

Nissan took the wraps off the MY21 Navara last Thursday via a co-ordinated global reveal that included the company’s new Australian headquarters in the Melbourne suburb of Mulgrave.

The star of the show was the new Navara PRO-4X dual-cab, which will sit above the popular ST-X as Nissan’s rival for the likes of the Ford Ranger Wildtrak and replace the departing N-TREK as the basis of the incoming MY21 Navara Warrior.

The Navara also delivers significant safety upgrades across the range, a more comprehensive range of accessories and the first significant styling overhaul since the D23 Navara launched in 2015.

It also comes a year after Nissan added standard Apple CarPlay and Android Auto to the package and is the fourth retune of the controversial coil-spring rear suspension.

Of course one thing Nissan isn’t doing as yet is announcing pricing or detailed equipment levels by model line.

The 2.3-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel engines and attendant manual and automatic transmissions and 4x2/4x4 systems have not been changed.

The D23 Navara now faces the challenge of holding up under intense pressure from rivals until about 2020 when a new model is due, topped potentially by a Ranger Raptor rival.

“I think it is a fantastic package,” said Nissan Australian managing director Stephen Lester of the MY21 Navara. “From a design standpoint you are talking a whole front-end, a whole rear-end. You’re talking (increased) bed height, all the safety features, interior design.

“So it’s a massive movement for a mid-cycle change.

“We are still sitting roughly fourth in sales volume so when you look at these new products, yes some of them have been dramatic improvements for them, but now I think in a lot of ways our Navara is stepping back ahead.”

All-new pick-up models in 2020 include the Mazda BT-50 and its Isuzu D-MAX non-identical twin and the forthcoming GWM Ute.

The top-selling Toyota HiLux has been drastically overhauled, while the popular Ford Ranger has also had a tickle.

All of them, like Navara, have significant safety suites that include autonomous emergency braking (AEB).

According to official VFACTS registration data to the end of October 2020, the Navara is Australia’s fourth most popular 4x4 and fifth most popular when 4x2 sales are added.

Navara 4x4 sales are off 13.5 per cent and 4x2 sales 36.9 per cent in 2020. While those drops aren’t good, COVID-19 is a mitigating factor. However, in 2019, before COVID was an issue, Navara 4x4 sales were down 18.1 per cent and 4x2s 20.4 per cent compared to 2018.

It’s that decline Lester is confident the MY21 Navara will address.

“Where you saw the market grow and where I think we lost plenty of share is we were not successful – until the time we launched Warrior – in saying we have something in those segments at the top that is really growing,” he said.

“In the lower end of the market it is extraordinarily competitive and there has been a tightening … there as well.”

Lester was not prepared to forecast how much cut-through PRO-4X would achieve, but he was confident that it would be boosted when the updated Warrior launches as soon as late 2020.

“I think as N-TREK did, it will play an important role for us and I think that once we have a Warrior program in place it actually heightens the performance in that segment,” he said.

“ST-X will probably continue to be our main stronghold of share overall and that’s not really surprising in the context that as you go up you are starting to diminish the volume of consumers who are actually there and that’s how halo vehicles work.”

New accessories to roll out with MY21 Nissan Navara will include a snorkel, winch-compatible bullbar and underbody protection.

Lester said more accessories were under development.