Not wanting to be left behind when it came to the world of performance and sporty bakkies, it appears a Nissan Navara Nismo is on the cards.

It would be an odd week on Cars.co.za if there wasn’t mention of a sporty double-cab bakkie and it appears Nissan is preparing to join the popular party.

With rivals like Toyota and Ford offering the GR and Raptor badges on their flagship bakkies, it was only going to be a matter of time before Nissan suffered from fomo.

Now things are progressing beyond the rumour stage with Nissan’s performance division NISMO telling Automotive News that it’s wanting to expand its portfolio into “utes and SUVs in the US market and beyond.”

“When we look at the USA market and what our competitors are doing there, I think there is a possibility in the crossover and truck segments going forward,” NISMO’s global CEO, Takao Katagiri said in the interview withAutomotive News.

The US market is flush with sporty Ford and Toyota offerings, and while the Titan is not offered in SA, the Navara is, although it’s tagged as the Frontier. Now if Nissan shoves in some performance powertrains into its bakkie range, it’ll make for a fascinating comparison against the sporty rivals.

Now this is where things get interesting. Right now, all three brands Toyota, Ford, Nissan all manufacture their wares in South Africa and while there’s no Hilux GR Sport locally yet, we’d bet Toyota SA is working on something to keep pace with the offroad-focused Ford Ranger Raptor.

Right now, the flagship Nissan Navara is the PRO-4X 4×4 and while it looks the part, it’ll need a bit more oomph both in terms of engine performance and offroad capability to match something like the Ranger Raptor. We’ll keep tabs on this project and will update if we hear anything happening locally.

Further Reading

Toyota GR Sport Hilux low-rider announced

Ford Ranger Raptor review

Nissan Navara prototype drive