Nissan has missed a golden alternative to affix the heavyweight pick-up battle in Australia with its American-made Titan.

As Ram and Chevrolet vans proceed to develop in recognition Down Underneath, and Ford and Toyota finalise their Australian arrival plans, the stillborn Titan mission has lastly acquired its offical Australian dying discover.

It comes after greater than 5 years of speak, however little motion, on a high-level Nissan dedication to a right-hand drive Titan.

The Titan was first promised to Australia in October 2017 by Ashwani Gupta, then the top of sunshine business automobile operations for the Renault-Nissan Alliance.

“Truck lovers love vans. We’re learning the enlargement of the Titan full-size pick-up in different markets exterior the US,” stated Mr Gupta, talking to Australian media in Japan.

The concept was strongly supported by the CEO of Nissan Australia on the time, Stephen Lester, though he might by no means affirm an official engineering plan.

“Our resolve to get it to Australia hasn’t modified. [But] there isn’t a particular timing for us,” Mr Lester stated in 2019.

“The story hasn’t modified a lot. It’s nonetheless very a lot on our radar regionally. And we’re protecting it on the worldwide radar.”

However a change of administration at Nissan Australia, below new boss Adam Paterson, didn’t transfer the needle on Titan, regardless of Gupta – the final senior survivor from the Carlos Ghosn workforce that radically reformed Nissan within the early days of the worldwide alliance – transferring steadily up the ranks to finally develop into the corporate’s chief working officer.

Whereas Nissan failed to maneuver, the recognition of full-sized US pickups in Australia continued to develop, with the Walkinshaw Automotive Group in Melbourne growing and implementing right-hand drive conversions for Ram and the Chevrolet Silverado.

Walkinshaw can also be answerable for related work, and manufacturing, of the Toyota Tundra in direction of the top of this yr.

Official gross sales figures from VFACTS present Chevrolet bought 1953 of its Silverado vans by the primary seven months of this yr, up from 1170 in 2022, whereas Ram numbers accelerated from 2998 a yr in the past to 4534 – a soar of 51.2 per cent – in the identical interval.

However the crunch was coming for the Titan, as Gupta was ousted by Japanese administration on June 19.

His departure was an enormous blow and CarExpert instantly contacted Nissan Australia for an official assertion on the Titan, however acquired no reply for greater than a month.

There was no reply, both, from Premcar in Melbourne, Nissan’s official companion for its Warrior fashions and a possible connection for right-hand drive conversion work.

The official silence was finally damaged by Nissan on August 7 – however from the USA.

“Manufacturing of the Nissan Titan is scheduled to finish summer time 2024 at our Canton plant in Mississippi,” Nissan North America stated.

The choice to kill the Titan, and finish the present mannequin run in the midst of subsequent yr, was made partly due to poor US gross sales and partly because of future electrification plans.

It was no shock, and clearly pointed to a full and remaining cease to any hopes of bringing the Titan to Australia.

However there was nonetheless no information from Nissan Australia, till CarExpert requested an replace.

Ultimately there was an official one-line dying sentence.

“At this level there aren’t any plans to introduce the present Titan to Australia,” stated Nissan Australia.