1999 Nissan Terrano II Reviews

Having pioneered the mass-market electric car in late 2010 with the introduction of the Leaf, Nissan could be left without any EVs to sell in Australia for a period of 2025.

The top five electric SUVs updated for 2022

The Australian Government’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard will begin to bite from July 1, 2025, and some manufacturers feel legislation has moved faster than Australia’s sluggish type approval process allows.

Australia's ever-booming new car market has hit a bump in the road, with the June sales result recording the industry's first year-on-year decline in around 16 months.

The Y63 Nissan Patrol release is set for 2025 with the LandCruiser 300 Series rival gearing up to use a twin-turbo V6 and debut a hugely improved interior.

If you think electric vehicles might be just a fad, like a Rubik’s Cube or a Livestrong bracelet, or even those Oakley stickers everyone had on their windscreens that said “Thermonuclear Protection”, we have news for you: EVs aren’t going anywhere. They’re going everywhere.

Nissan in the USA has finally lifted the lid on the next-generation Nissan Patrol's launch timing, confirming that the American version – the Armada – will hit dealerships before the end of the year.

Premcar and Nissan’s Warrior program has spawned a trio of capable, factory-backed off-roaders giving the Navara and Patrol nameplates some extra firepower as their eventual replacements approach. Left ungoverned by sensibilities like value and user-friendliness, though, the Parol Warrior could have been a very different beast. “For example, if Nissan came to us and said ‘we want to do 50 Patrols (and) we can charge $200,000 each’, that’s a totally different project. Then you’d supercharge it, put 37-inch tyres on and you’d homologate it in a totally different way,” says Bernie Quinn, Premcar Partner and Engineering Director.The finished product – although more capable, powerful and drool-worthy – would not have had such broad appeal without the Warrior’s bang for buck, Quinn describes more changes than the existing car as ‘diminishing returns’.“The very initial part of the program is called the affordable business case development, which is finding a balance between content versus cost versus volume, all of that stuff,” he said. There are products readily available to boost the Y62 Patrol’s power output. A Harrop supercharger kit adds around 100kW and 150Nm at the wheels yet costs over $13,0000 – and that’s before installation or ECU tuning. To retain its factory backing, the Warrior’s powertrain would then have to undergo some serious validation testing, which isn’t cheap. Add some supporting mods on top, like an enhanced cooling system, beefier brakes and stronger driveline and the price will only climb. The Warrior’s $104,160 (before on-road costs) price tag, however, gives it a leg up on newer rivals. Toyota’s LandCruiser 300 Series GR Sport is probably the better all-rounder with a more modern interior and greater capability thanks to a trio of locking differentials, yet it costs over $40,000 more today.A circa-$100K price was no accident. “It’s part of this iterative development process and the affordable business case development”, explains Quinn.  “We’re working as partners to develop that: price point, volume, time to market, duration of the program. Then we put all of that into the mixing box and see what spits out the best set of numbers.”Like the Navara Warriors that came before, there was no power increase for the Patrol and Bernie Quinn answered this as he has before. “I would say definitely, it’s possible, it’s just hitting that sweet spot? There are so many elements to it.”With the next-gen Patrol confirmed as a twin-turbo V6, software-based tuning should be more affordable and achievable than it is with the naturally aspirated ‘VK56’ V8 engine, so watch this space.

After no less than 17 years in production the current ‘R35’ version of Nissan’s iconic GT-R sports car is heading for global retirement in October this year.

New-vehicle manufacturing will never return to Australia – at least not as we knew it. Setting up full-scale production of a new car – as we saw with the Holden Commodore or Ford Territory – would be a $2 billion exercise today, says Engineering Director and Premcar partner Bernie Quinn. Having been involved with Ford’s FPV program and Premcar’s latest remanufacturing operation producing Australian-focused off-road capable Nissan Navara and Patrol Warriors, Quinn is intimately aware of the challenges.When CarsGuide asked about the viability of a full-on new-vehicle program, Quinn summed it up simply: “That’s not where the future lies. That would be awesome, but I just don’t think that’s going to happen.“What we are proposing – and what we’re doing – is secondary manufacturing. Taking global products which have been manufactured in low-cost countries, like Thailand, and adapting those to the Australian market. “There’s no reason why that can’t apply to EVs. And there’s no reason why that couldn’t apply to an EV conversion of a dual-cab ute, for example,” says Quinn.You might have spotted the ROEV project that had aspirations of taking HiLuxes and Rangers and converting them to electric vehicles – Premcar was involved on the engineering side. “We were working with ROEV but they’ve since changed their strategy and they’re not going to go ahead with that conversion.”ROEV has pivoted into artificial intelligence-driven software that can predict the most efficient vehicle type and powertrain for certain use cases. But Bernie still sees a future in localisation projects.“There’s 20,000 dual-cab utes in the Pilbara. The companies that work in the mining industry in the Pilbara have ESG requirements – corporate requirements – that are beyond government legislation.“So if they want to say ‘we’ve got to be all-electric by 2030’, well, there’s no vehicle that can do that. How would you service that market? Well, you might do an EV conversion. That’s what that project was all about,” explains Quinn. He notes that it would cost “a few million” to service that demand, far less than the $2 billion to engineer and produce a ground-up vehicle here. Only LDV offers a basic electric ute in Australia with manufacturers like Toyota and Ford dragging their heels on this type of vehicle. And when Australian vehicle manufacturing ended for good in October 2017 with the final Holden Commodore ‘VF II’ the people with knowledge didn’t necessarily disappear from the scene. Many remain here, now being employed by companies such as Premcar, Walkinshaw and RMA automotive to work on conversions, upgrades and localisation programs.Premcar has delivered 10,000 Warriors since 2018, while EV ute conversions have gone a little quiet, although SEA electric is still around.In simple terms, Australian manufacturing isn’t dead. The future just looks very different to Holden Commodores and Ford Falcons.