Nissan was the first foreign brand to offer a truly full-size pickup with the 2004 Titan. But the Titan has made even less of a dent in Detroit’s share of this highly profitable segment than Toyota has with the Tundra. But far from giving up on the segment, Nissan is doubling down with a fully redesigned 2016 Titan.
The new truck will be offered in three rather than two cab sizes and three rather than two bed lengths. Step up to the new Titan XD, and you’ll even be able to pair a crew cab with a usefully long (6’6″) bed. This combination is enabled by a 151.6″ wheelbase, about twenty more inches than the longest current Titan. Beyond this long wheelbase, the new XD is simply a heavier duty truck–but it’s not an “HD” pickup. Instead, Nissan is betting that a meaningful number of pickup buyers need more capability than light duty pickups typically offer, but not as much as HD pickups now offer–the latter being overkill for most uses. The new XD will be able to carry up to a ton and tow up to 12,000 lbs. These figures don’t place the Titan XD as far from current light duty pickups as Nissan suggests. The towing figure is nearly as high as you’ll see with a light duty pickup–the strongest can tow just a bit more–but the maximum payload is two-thirds that of the new Ford F-150. Current HD pickups can be equipped to carry over 4,000 lbs. and tow over 30,000 lbs.
The biggest news with the new Titan is a diesel engine. Ram currently offers a 240-horsepower 3.0-liter diesel in the 1500. Ford has a similarly sized V6 diesel planned for the new F-150. Compared to these, the Titan XD’s 5.0-liter V8 Cummins diesel, with a pair of sequential turbochargers, is much stronger: 310 horsepower and 555 lb-ft of torque. But its no match for HD pickups’ 6.7-liters (or so) diesels, which can produce nearly 400 horsepower and over 800 lb-ft of torque. So with the new engine as well Nissan is seeking to claim some open ground between light duty and HD pickups.
The new diesel engine has yielded one unfortunate aesthetic feature. To package the diesel’s intercooler, the new Titan’s nose is noticeably longer than the current trucks, yielding some less than ideal proportions. But will the typical pickup buyer notice? If they do notice, will they care? Probably not.
The real question is whether Nissan can successfully and effectively communicate the unique positioning of its truck. They emphasized one thing other than the diesel: this is an American product, designed in California, engineered in Michigan, and manufactured in Mississippi with engines from Indiana and Tennessee.