While rivals including Ford, Ram, and Chevrolet have all introduced electric pickup trucks in the U.S. (or will do so soon), Nissan is not yet willing to commit yet into making an electric truck, suggesting that most consumers are not ready for the switch.
Motor Trend recently had the opportunity to speak with Nissan’s global vice president of product planning Pierre Loing and asked about the potential of turning a truck like the Frontier into an EV. According to Loing, it is important the firm accurately reads customer demands and is ready to react when needed. At the moment, it doesn’t believe truck buyers are ready to make the switch and won’t be until the range of electric pickups can be improved.
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Nissan’s senior vice president of global planning, Ivan Espinosa, also spoke on the issue. He suggested that making a hybrid pickup is also not on the cards, noting that equipping a vehicle like the Frontier with its e-Power system is not an investment it is willing to make. However, Espinosa did tell Motor Trend that the firm is researching the possibility of electrifying its trucks in the future but said “we just don’t have a clear path we are ready to announce today.”
Evidently, it is clear that Nissan is more focused on electrifying its other models than a truck.
News of the firm’s current reluctance to follow the lead of its rivals comes just a couple of months after it was revealed that the full-size Titan will be dropped after the 2024 model year. This is in part because the plant in Canton, Missouri that builds the Titan will be transformed into an EV site and eventually support the production of two all-new EVs. This means the Frontier will soon be Nissan’s only pickup sold in the U.S.
Fortunately, the Frontier is expected to stick around for quite some time. In fact, a recent internal memo from August suggests the current-generation Frontier will continue to be built until the 2029 model year.
