Nissan Frontier Pro PHEV ute confirmed for Australia

Nissan has stunned hundreds of attendees at a gala dinner in Adelaide overnight by ripping the covers off the Frontier Pro plug-in hybrid ute and declaring it will launch here potentially as soon as early 2027

Having staged the global debut of the new Mitsubishi Triton-based Navara at an outdoor function in the Adelaide hills on Wednesday night, Nissan followed up by presenting the 300kW Frontier Pro hybrid ute behind closed doors 24 hours later.

Designed to take on the BYD Shark 6 hybrid ute, carsales understands a massive model rush that could include up to four new SUVs and a return to the mainstream passenger car market by Nissan in Australia was also outlined.

The SUV avalanche is understood to include a large plug-in SUV and an electric SUV rival for the affordable Geely EX5.

Like the Frontier Pro, these SUVs are sourced from Nissan’s China joint-venture (JV) with Dongfeng.

The JV could also supply the N7 electric sedan and/or N6 plug-in hybrid sedan to Australia.

Carsales learned about the Frontier Pro unveil from sources at the dinner. Attendees included Nissan executives and employees from both Australia and overseas, dealers from Australia and New Zealand and other invited guests.

Unlike the Navara global reveal, media were not invited last night.

The reveal to dealers helps clarify bullish statements by Nissan Oceania managing director Andrew Humberstone at a press conference in Adelaide on Wednesday morning.

Notionally called to roll out first details of the new Navara, Humberstone also outlined his plan for a Nissan Australia resurgence. He predicted a sales rebound would commence for the brand in 2027 as new models come from new sources.

“From 2027 it’s going to start to become very good,” he predicted of the brand’s sales trajectory.

Nissan’s Australian sales are down 17.7 per cent year-on-year and has dropped it out of the national top 10.

“We are looking at all of the sources of product that we have globally,” Humberstone confirmed.

“Certainly Dongfeng is a partner as Mitsubishi is. We have many options open to us.

“We are looking at all options and seeing what we think will be best for the market and we are doing that with our dealer network and their engagement as well,” the Nissan Oceania boss added.

Last night’s viewing of the Frontier Pro isn’t the first time Nissan dealers have been exposed to the BYD Shark 6 rival that made its public debut at the Shanghai show in April.

Humberstone confirmed a group of them were shown future Nissan-Dongfeng models in China earlier this year.

Humberstone has also previously made it clear the electrified Frontier Pro dual-cab utes could comfortably sell alongside the diesel-only Navara in Australia, helping Nissan better meet NVES CO2 reduction targets.

The Nissan Frontier Pro plug-in hybrid ute packs a 300kW (400hp) punch and a monstrous 800Nm from its combination of a 1.5-litre turbo-petrol engine and a single electric motor.

Built by Zhengzhou Nissan (ZNA) in China, the new ute is essentially a rebadged Dongfeng Z9 pick-up truck.

Humberstone, who officially took over Nissan Australia in April 2024, has implemented a high-profile overhaul of the brand Down Under that’s included a new five-year strategic plan.

But sales have continued to slide despite his initiatives.

Popular Chinese giants BYD, GWM and Chery have all pushed into the top 10 sellers in 2025 alongside MG, forcing out traditional top selling brands, including Nissan.

Humberstone rejected the proposition Nissan’s situation was the “new normal”.

“I think it's definitely not a new normal. What I've tried to explain is that we've had a lot of work to do, but in between, the key component for me is around sourcing the product,” he said.

“So what we've seen are a number of our products have been reduced in terms of supply chain, but also in terms of profitability, so what we're looking at is a new product portfolio," added Humberstone.

“So we expected to see a decline in volumes. We planned for the reduction in volumes, but we are retaining a dealer network of the size that we have, because we also believe that we have the volume potential to get there and get to the kind of levels that we were at three, four, five, six years ago, pre-COVID, certainly.

“One of the things that we've done is we've worked very closely with our dealer network, our dealer councils, in terms of what are the future products that we want, what do they look like, what are they, re-analysing the competitive market, and then from there saying, okay, where is the critical mass, what is it we want by segment?”

While we await more details of its Chinese-sourced product offensive, Nissan will launch the fifth-generation Navara ute in Australia in March 2026 and the all-new Patrol in early 2027, which ditches its V8 for a down-sized turbocharged V6.

The X-Trail and Qashqai SUVs will also go through minor updates in 2026.

Nissan’s adoption of Chinese-sourced vehicles, particularly electrified models, has also been adopted by other popular Japanese brands like Mazda, which is launching its first-ever Chinese-sourced EV in Australia in 2026, the Mazda 6e sedan.

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