Nissan Titan to launch in Australia "ASAP"

Nissan's American-style Titan "makes perfect sense for Australia", with the brand's local executives confident they'll soon be launching the jumbo truck down under.

While he wouldn't be drawn on a timeframe, Nissan Australia MD Stephen Lester told CarsGuide he is pushing to launch the vehicle locally "ASAP".

"There are definitely plans to expand. Even within Navara we’ve seen the development of special versions support the growth of that car, and we’ll see that continue for sure," Mr Lester said.

"But I also believe a vehicle like Titan would make perfect sense for Australia. We’ve been hard at it with the global team to push for this, and we’ll stay hard at it, because I don’t see that changing anytime soon."

Part of Nissan Australia's sales pitch to its global counterparts is the success of the ute market in Australia - the only vehicle segment to show positive sales growth in February. And that's something Nissan says will likely continue, and so it sees plenty of potential for the Titan here; an American-born behemoth powered by a 5.0-litre turbo-diesel V8. It also serves up maximum towing capacity of about 5.2 tonnes, and a maximum payload capacity of about 900kg.

"Australia’s appetite for full-size pickups will only continue to grow, and I think there is great opportunity for (the Titan)," Mr Lester said.

"I’d hate to put a timeframe on it, but we will push hard to get it ASAP, and we will take it as quickly as we can get it."

But that's not to say there aren't challenges left to conquer. Despite the international response to Nissan Australia's plan being "positive", Mr Lester said there are still engineering issues to solve.

"(The response) has been quite positive, but the challenge is the complexity of taking a car that is only built in left-hand drive, and was only planned as left-hand drive.

"So there are a lot of hurdles to jump through to get all the necessary sign-off to bring it to market."

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