"The Patrol is OUR flagship": Has Nissan just put the final nail in the all-new Mitsubishi Pajero by refusing to share the Y63 2025 Nissan Patrol?

Nissan says, despite talks, it won't be sharing the Y63 Patrol with its alliance partner Mitsubishi for the latter's all-new Pajero, declaring the Patrol "the ultimate DNA" of Nissan.

François Bailly is a Nissan Senior Vice President, and the Chief Planning Officer for the AMIEO region (which includes Australia). And the Nissan executive was fairly unequivocal with his response when asked if the new Patrol could help shape the new Pajero.

The executive said early discussions had taken place, but no deal had been struck, and Nissan had no immediate plan to share its Patrol platform.

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"Would you do an OEM deal on GT-R? This is Nissan. This is the car of Nissan. The ultimate DNA of the company," Mr Bailly says.

"It's not a B-segment, or a C-segment (vehicle). This is our flagship, it's what Nissan is. We had discussions, but it din't materialise.

“We could sell it, it really depends on for what and how.

"The message is that this is our car, our essence, and there is no discussion."

The executive's comments leave Mitsubishi in a curious position, with the brand presumably left to execute its own rugged large 4WD platform on which to house a Pajero.

More likely, though, would be a focus on the Pajero Sport, with Nissan confirming the two company's will share platforms and powertrains on the new Triton and Navara utes, the base of which would form an all-new ute-based SUV like the Ford Ranger and Everest.

We know the all-new Navara will arrive in 2026, with the news this time coming from Nissan's Chairperson of the AMEIO Region, Guillaume Cartier, one the company's top executives.

Mr Cartier says the new Nissan Navara is being developed in conjunction with the new Mitsubishi Triton, with the brand to lean into its strategic alliance to lower development costs and shortcut production timings.

The executive also confirmed the new model would retain its diesel powertrain – at least for now – suggesting Australia's unique market usage of utes as lifestyle vehicles that tow and travel big distances make the use of diesel a prerequisite.

But that time will change soon enough, with Mr Cartier confirming this new-generation Navara would step from diesel to a petrol plug-in hybrid powertrain during its lifecycle, and then to a full battery electric offering when Nissan's work on solid-state battery technology comes to fruition.

"We are dealing with the regulatory aspect, to understand whether it will be passenger vehicle or SUV and how pickup will qualify within that. Which is in discussion," Mr Cartier says.

"We need to answer the regulation, but we need also to answer the customer. The way the pickup is used in Australia is totally different than elsewhere. Because some are using it for work and some for leisure.

"So we need to make sure that if we electrify, how we electrify. I think it will be a two-step approach, first with a PHEV solution, then later on with EV. That will be the two-step approach.

"That's what we're looking at, but first it will be with a diesel approach.

"On the first one we are with Mitsubishi, but the next one we are looking at. Because there is also technology we have in-house, which is solid-state battery, but that will take time. We are piloting at the end of 2024, but that is really the game-changer. If this technology is as successful as we believe, we can electrify cars that are today unable to be electrified."