NISSAN TITAN ACCESSORIES & Parts

It looks like the launch of the next-generation Nissan Titan is put on hold. As stated by Automotive News, the delay of the vehicle's engineering is caused by earthquake and tsunami tragedies happened in Japan this year. Automotive News also reported that the Titan may not arrive until the 2014 model year. The source of this information is Andy Palmer, who is the executive vice president for vehicle planning and program management at Nissan. He decided to put the pickup's development aside for now.

Though Nissan and Chrysler planned to co-develop a successor to the Titan, this plan failed, because the American automaker entered bankruptcy. The next-generation full-size pickup was expected to debut this year.

Since the current Titan rolled out in 2004, it made the truck one of the oldest platforms in a competitive segment. There is nothing else left to do but hope that this postponement won't lead to any issue regarding the turbo diesel four-cylinder engine which is now developed by Nissan and Cummins.

According to PickupTrucks.com, closer to 2015 the automotive world will meet the next-gen Nissan Titan with a new, highly efficient diesel engine. It is a joint project of Nissan, Cummins and U.S. Department of Energy. The idea costs $30 million, half of which was granted by the DOE. The implementation of this program will help Nissan to put the 2015 Titan model among the most fuel-efficient full size pickup trucks on the market. This status will increase the sales of the model.

The officials announced the project at the Annual Merit Review & Peer Evaluation Meeting, held this year in May 9 – 13, in Washington. D.C. The first steps towards the fulfillment of this project were made last September. The result is expected to be presented in the second half of 2014. Currently Cummins assembled the prototype version, which is tested on the current generation of the Titan model. The four-cylinder inline diesel motor has already shown the first results. With a 2.8-liter displacement, the mule power unit is able to deliver 350 lb-ft of torque. According to the presentation chart the torque will be 380 lb-ft, while the speed is promised to be 220 hp.

The same chart mentioned that traditional aluminum pistons would be replaced by the high-strength steel ones. The variable valve technology is considered by Cummins to be applied in the diesel's construction. Moreover, while designing the diesel, the engineering team kept in mind the U.S. Tier 2 Bin 2 emissions limits. The new power unit is said to get 28 mpg combine mileage that complies with a new federal policy regarding 30 mpg for the light trucks, adopted by President Barack Obama in May, 2009.

Since its introduction in late 2003, the Nissan Titan has traveled a long and difficult road in the full-size pickup market. Even though the Titan started out pretty strong, its sales have been decreasing rather rapidly since 2006. So when last year Chrysler announced that it wouldn’t be sharing its Ram 1500 platform with Nissan, many observers assumed that the Titan was close to being done for.

However, according to Larry Dominique, Nissan’s Vice President of Product Planning, the Japanese automaker is staying in the large pickup truck market. The Titan light-duty pickup will likely get a replacement in 2014. That’s definitely a long time to wait, but Nissan is going to make the most out of it and maybe will deliver an all-new heavy-duty pickup truck.

Nissan will reportedly continue to improve the Titan using unspecified hardware from other trucks, like the Nissan Armada and Infiniti QX56, but it’s highly unlikely that the Titan’s existing 5.6L V-8 engine would get any changes before its replacement arrives. There also is a speculation that Nissan could be seeking for a partner to collaborate on a new truck. Some automotive observers suggest Toyota as it’s the only other Japanese automaker competing directly with the Detroit Big Three in the U.S. half-ton pickup truck market.

“My team is working on the best overall scenario for doing the next Titan internally,” Dominique said. “Given the environment, given the economy and that Nissan’s global resources are constrained, we can’t do everything we want as fast as we want. We had a plan that was humming along with Chrysler to deliver the truck by 2011 but that deal went away. It’s a few years away. We’re looking at short term enhancements we can make until 2014.”