Nissan Seeking To Electrify The Titan Pickup Truck
Sponsored Links
Nissan may electrify the full-size Titan pickup truck. If the Japanese automaker does decide to add battery power to the Titan, it would compete with the as-of-yet unannounced Chevy EV pickup model.
According to a recent report from Bloomberg, Nissan is said to be in talks with Hercules Electric Vehicles, a Detroit-based EV startup, to source a new battery-electric powertrain for the Nissan Titan pickup truck. Citing “people familiar with the matter,” the Bloomberg report states that Nissan would also share components from its truck line in a possible strategic partnership.
For now, talks between Nissan and Hercules are said to be ongoing, and no deal has been signed. As such, the prospective partnership could still fall through. Still, if the rumors are true and Nissan does end up electrifying the Titan pickup truck, the automaker will take the plunge into a rapidly expanding new segment.
Although an electrified Titan pickup truck would not compete directly with the recently unveiled GMC Hummer EV pickup, it would rival the upcoming Chevy EV pickup and “other” GMC EV pickup model that General Motors confirmed would hit the market by 2025. Just last week, General Motors teased a new Chevy EV pickup model during the Barclays 2020 Global Automotive Conference, parking the new battery-driven truck behind GM’s new chief EV officer, Travis Hester.
An electrified Titan pickup truck would also compete with rival products like the electric Ford F-150, the Rivian R1T, and the Tesla Cybertruck.
As the recent Bloomberg report points out, Nissan has struggled to stay competitive this year, with Titan pickup truck sales dropping 38 percent. As GM Authority covered earlier this month, the Nissan Titan trails in the full-size pickup segment, posting just 7,207 units sold in Q3 of 2020. Meanwhile, the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra posted 147,484 units sold and 67,812 units sold, respectively, during the same time period.
Subscribe to GM Authority for ongoing Nissan competition news and General Motors news coverage.
Sponsored Links
The real question isn’t if they will enter the EV truck segment, it’s will anyone care? Just like when they came out with a half ton diesel, or when they made a ‘heavy duty half ton.’ Much fanfare in the news, and no sales to show for it. As long as they continue to try to sell trucks in the same way as Sentras they will be irrelevant.
Nissan needs a fullsize truck partner, and not just for an e-truck, they almost had Ram back in 2012ish(?) but the FCA merger ended that. If they want to have a proper go at the half ton North American truck market they should seek a partner again.
For the EV truck, GM has positioned themselves to license out the Ultium and and BT1, that could be a logical step for Nissan. But does GM want or need the hassle of also offering up the T1 to build 30-50,000 Titans a year?
Over at the Frontier camp I’m curious how it will do with the next generation coming out this year, an updated V6 that is still a bit behind the times, and a much higher price tag might kill the very thing keeping it’s sales so healthy. Without that low price it’ll be a hard pill to swallow for consumers.
Making a bad truck electric and more expensive is not going to help.
Nissan has not been relevant for years.
Easily the worst looking truck on the road.
I think that the Titan is a pretty nice looking pickup. I test drove one a few weeks ago and came away impressed. Since the 60s have always bought GMC or Chevrolet pickups.
One thing is that when you are searching for a student loan you may find that you’ll want a cosigner. There are many situations where this is true because you may find that you do not use a past credit rating so the mortgage lender will require that you’ve someone cosign the credit for you. Thanks for your post.