Nissan Navara and Patrol e-POWER development confirmed

Global Nissan executives have all but confirmed the development of an electrified Nissan Navara, as well as an electrified Nissan Patrol, employing the Japanese car-maker’s unique e-POWER hybrid drive technology.

Speaking to global media this week, Nissan vice-president and (Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi) Alliance global vice-president for powertrain and EV engineering Shunichi Inamijima said it wasn’t appropriate to speak about future product plans, but let slip that development of commercial and larger SUV applications of the e-POWER system was already under way.

“For a four-wheel drive application, we have already applied e-POWER technology for X-TRAIL, so you can confirm its performance by X-TRAIL, but I can say the technology itself is applicable for larger SUVs or commercial applications and technical development is going on,” he said.

“e-POWER is also applicable not just for big SUVs like Patrol or something, but also it is applicable for commercial application like commercial vans or commercial trucks, but it really depends on the customer needs or market requests.”

The notion of an electrified Navara and/or Patrol has been in the public domain for a while now but truly rose to prominence in 2022 when Nissan’s AMEIO regional execs confirmed e-POWER would replace diesel engines across the board and that the technology was almost infinitely scalable.

Nissan powertrain systems expert leader Ryozo Hiraku went one step further at this week’s media event by saying the e-POWER system will be improved over time, including its petrol-powered combustion engine/generator and its electric-drive components.

As we’ve written extensively, as seen in both the new X-TRAIL and QASHQAI, Nissan’s e-POWER system is a series hybrid set-up in which only electric motor/s drive the wheels and the engine is employed only to charge its drive battery, in effect making it a range-extender EV.

This is unlike plug-in hybrid (PHEV) systems like those favoured by Mitsubishi, and the parallel hybrid systems most commonly used by Toyota, which like Nissan’s e-POWER system are also plugless, self-charging and, so far, petrol-electric.

The kicker is these e-POWER advancements will go hand-in-hand with Nissan’s new ‘X-into-1’ strategy, which aims to reduce development and production costs by around 30 per cent – compared to 2019 levels – by mid-decade through parts sharing and powertrain modularisation.

While still in its early days, e-POWER tech is already proving to be more efficient than a comparable combustion engine while delivering more power and torque, given the new X-TRAIL e-POWER with e4ORCE all-wheel drive develops 157kW and a theoretical 525Nm.

The latter figure is unofficial – Nissan won’t release an actual figure – but is an impressive amount of twisting force for a mid-size SUV, making it one of the defining characteristics of the X-TRAIL e-POWER’s EV-like driving experience.

More powerful electric motors and a gutsier engine/generator would liberate even more grunt, making it ideal for towing oriented vehicles like the Navara and Patrol.

Nissan engineers also point out that the company’s e4ORCE AWD system reacts 10,000 times faster than a traditional 4x4 system, also making it ideal for off-road vehicle applications.

Nissan will undoubtedly take its time developing e-POWER systems for the new Navara and Patrol given the stiff competition they’ll face from arch-rivals including the 185kW/450Nm-plus Mitsubishi Triton PHEV and circa-325kW/750Nm Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series iForce Maxx.

As part of an onslaught of new conventional, hybrid and electric utes expected on sale in Australia in the next two years, the new Nissan Navara is due for release in 2024 and will be based on the new Mitsubishi Triton, which will be revealed in coming months and released Down Under in early 2024.

It now appears certain that the eventual hybrid versions of the new Navara and Triton will brings fundamentally different powertrains, setting up a fascinating battle between the sister utes and upcoming hybrid versions of the new Ford Ranger and Volkswagen Amarok and the next Toyota HiLux due by 2025.

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