New Navara, Patrol here by 2027: Nissan

NISSAN Oceania vice president and managing director Andrew Humberstone said the brand remains committed to its new-product roll-out, despite changes that may arise from its planned merger with Honda.

Speaking with motoring media gathered for the Australian launch of the 2025 Nissan Qashqai in Melbourne, Mr Humberstone said products already slated for local dealerships will continue to arrive in step with Nissan’s ARC mid-term plan, including those for the new Patrol, Navara, Ariya, and Leaf.

“To set the record straight, we are here to stay. The Nissan brand is here to stay. We are launching exceptionally good and new products, and we’re putting words into action in focusing on our customers,” he stated.

“We’re working with incredible speed to implement a turnaround action plan and really focus on recovery. We will focus on product-driven revenue strategies and production-driven strategies and we’ve got a real focus on how we’re going to work that recovery.

“We need to set up our business around profitability and sustainable growth. Our approach centres around rightsizing the business to better manage global challenges.

“We’ve already initiated some of these actions (through) management and organisation restructuring and addressing improvements in the product development cycle – all while maintaining cash flow.

“Expanding on that, we are looking at reducing development time on new product from 55 to 30 months.”

While any reduction in the development process has come too late to benefit products already in the pipeline, the changes will give future vehicles developed within the Honda-Nissan alliance a fighting chance against the onslaught of vehicles sourced from China, many of which offer more modern styling, advanced safety and connectivity technologies, and new energy drivelines that have failed to materialise from Honda and Nissan product lines.

“Our recent announcement regarding the MOU which has been signed with Honda has the potential to reshape our (Nissan’s) future, in terms of product, R&D, design, and shared technologies,” he continued.

“By uniting our strengths … we can deliver unparalleled value to customers worldwide. We are acting on this potential opportunity with urgency, with a view to expediting as quickly as we can, and we aim to conclude the study by the end of the Japanese summer.

“All of these actions will give us significant momentum to build upon.”

While it might be too early to forecast any local impact the Honda-Nissan merger will bear, Mr Humberstone reiterated that new vehicles coming as part of Nissan’s ARC mid-term commitment will continue to arrive as planned.

“We continue to invest in products for local customers. We have 11 new product events (planned), and of course four new products including Ariya, the new Patrol, the new Navara, and the new Leaf,” he confirmed.

“We are really excited to share those with you and our market, as well as our continued investment in the EV space, and in e-Power and ICE vehicles as well.”

Nissan aims to have the four products listed above in Australian showrooms before the end of the 2026-27 Japanese financial year (March 2027), with Ariya beginning proceedings in the second half of 2025.

Visit GoAuto again soon for our local launch review of the 2025 Nissan Qashqai.