Nissan considers Titan EV and Aussie sale

The full-size Nissan Titan pick-up under consideration for Australia could be offered with a battery electric drivetrain.

The move makes sense for the US-built ute because the market-leading Ford F-150 will have an EV version by 2022, while Chevrolet and RAM are committing to electrification as well.

ICE versions of both the Chevrolet Silverado and RAM 1500 are sold in Australia and have proved popular for both towing and work sites.

Nissan Australia has been hungrily eying that success and has been campaigning to get the Titan here either coming right-hand from the North American factory where it is built, or converted locally as the Silverado and RAM are.

Considering Nissan Australia is pushing harder and harder into the electrified space, with the Nissan Leaf e+ coming in early 2021, the Ariya SUV expected to be confirmed soon and E-Power hybrids to start rolling out here as soon as the new-generation Qashqai in 2021, a Titan EV should appeal.

According to reports by Bloomberg in the USA, Nissan has approached Detroit-based start-up Hercules Electric Vehicles to buy battery electric powertrains for the Titan.

The partnership would also result in Nissan supplying parts to Hercules for its own pick-up.

The deal is yet to be completed and is not guaranteed to go ahead, Bloomberg reported.

Apart from Ford, Chevrolet and RAM, the BEV truck market is set to explode in the USA with newcomers including Tesla, Rivian, Lordstown and Bollinger all set to lob entrants. GM will also add the expensive and off-road oriented GMC Hummer.

As we report here, the commercial success of all these trucks is not guaranteed.

The Titan has struggled for sales success in the full-size truck market and is currently only offered as a V8 petrol 4×4. Adding an EV is seen as a potential way to boost its popularity.

Doing a deal with Hercules would also reflect similar moves by Ford to link with Rivian and GM with Lordstown and potentially Nikola.

Bloomberg reports Hercules was founded in Detroit in 2018 by James Breyer, an auto engineer with stints at GM, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, and Magna International Inc. He was soon joined by co-founders Greg Weber, another FCA veteran who also worked at battery maker LG Chem Ltd., and Julie Tolley, a former engineer at engine supplier Eaton Corp.

The company plans to produce its first vehicle, a luxury electric truck called the Hercules Alpha, at niche volumes starting in mid-2022.

In Australia, Nissan has been campaigning to get the Titan for a number of years. A recent change in global reporting structures has reinvigorated that opportunity.

Previously, the Nissan world was split into seven regions and Australia was part of the small (about 275,000 sales per annum) Asia & Oceania (A&O) region headquartered in Thailand.

It has now been included in the newly-created Africa, Middle East, India, Europe & Oceania (AMIEO) which has its HQ in Dubai.

Being part of a region with more than one million sales per annum and fellow pick-up markets South Africa and the Middle East can only help Australia’s case for Titan, Nissan Australia managing director Stephen Lester said.

“Now that we have done the regional transition we hope with alignment just back to our Middle East colleagues that we have got a little bit more of a formidable group,” he said.

“One of the challenges we had from an A&O perspective was there was nobody with us.

“Now with the group that we’ve got in our new region there’s potential to still pick that (Titan) up.”

Lester is expected to reopen negotiations for Titan soon.