Nissan’s Path To The Future Could Be Two New Off-Road SUVs

Nissan is facing internal financial struggles. The external climate is changing radically with Trump administration tariffs and EV subsidy removals. And it comes as no surprise that Nissan would reevaluate its plans for just about everything. One key issue will be how the brand deploys its Canton, Mississippi plant moving forward.

Canton was supposed to be Nissan’s new hub for electric vehicle production. But Nissan has delayed the electric SUVs it is supposed to build there after pausing development on its electric sedans. And rather than letting valuable American tariff-free production facilities in America lie fallow, Nissan reportedly may pursue an alternate (and one might say opposing) strategy to the EV push: going all-in on body-on-frame vehicles.

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Nissan May Revive The Xterra And Build An Infiniti Version

According to Automotive News, Nissan is considering a “comprehensive body-on-frame product strategy” for its Canton plant. Two new body-on-frame midsize SUVs would be a key component of that plan. Nissan’s next-generation Frontier (which may also get a Honda version) will use either a hybrid or plug-in hybrid powertrain. Nissan would then build a new SUV on that truck’s platform, a new Xterra for Nissan to take on the Jeep Wrangler, Ford Bronco, and Toyota 4Runner. Infiniti would get a rebadged (and one presumes more luxurious) version.

Those SUVs, on paper, would be two things Nissan’s lineup has been desperate to find: popular and profitable. In typical years, the Wrangler, Bronco, and 4Runner each sell more than 100,000 units and ramp up margins with in-house accessories.

Nissan May Move Armada and Infiniti QX80 Production To America

Another component of the product strategy would be relocating Nissan Armada and Infiniti QX80 production to America. Nissan currently builds both vehicles at its plant in Kyushu, Japan. The report says Nissan is considering moving American production of both vehicles to Canton. That would allow Nissan to offset present and future tariffs on them and ramp up production to meet demand.

One issue with that move is that it would also cost Nissan “several hundred million dollars” to retool the plants. Another, per the Automotive News source, is supply chains. Competitors have “sucked up a lot of the open supplier capacity.”

CarBuzz contacted Nissan seeking more information or a request for comment on this report. We are awaiting a reply.

Not Mentioned: A New Nissan Titan

The “comprehensive body-on-frame product strategy” does not appear to include a new full-size body-on-frame pickup. Nissan built the Titan in Canton until the full-size truck left production in 2024. Nissan has good reasons not to revive it. Competition is brutal in the full-size segment, and Nissan could not find a niche for the Titan. The brand was selling fewer than 20,000 of them per year, compared to Ford selling 700,000 F-150s.

Building a new Titan on the same platform as the Armada and QX80 could help justify spending “several hundred million dollars.” However, reviving the Titan would require resolving the same conundrum that led to its departure. The Titan needed an expensive overhaul to improve sales. But it also needed the guarantee of sales to justify the expensive overhaul. Any revival proposal within Nissan would have to square that circle.

Nissan Titan Sales Figures (2021-24)

Sources: Automotive News, Nissan