Nissan debuted the first mass-market electric car, the Leaf, back in 2010. It then took them a long while to bring out the Ariya crossover — which is not too shabby in all-wheel-drive form. But Nissan plans to pick up the pace with EV launches this decade. Reports suggest one of them may be an electric truck. And it may be smaller and cheaper than the EV trucks currently hitting the market.
Here’s what we know so far about Nissan’s electric truck.
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Nissan has not confirmed an electric truck yet — but...
Nissan
Nissan expanded its Ambition 2030 plan in 2023. It now calls for 19 new EVs by 2030. Nissan and Infiniti expect 55 percent of sales globally and 40 percent in America to be EVs. Nissan has not confirmed an electric pickup is coming yet. But it would be more surprising if an EV were not part of those plans.
2
Reports say Nissan has been exploring a small electric pickup
Nissan did debut an electric truck concept that could be a preview
Nissan
Nissan released four preview concepts for its new EV fleet in 2021. Two were crossovers, the Chill-out and the Hang-out. There was a Max-out sports car. The fourth was a rugged off-road pickup, the Surf-out.
The Surf-out included an advanced version of Nissan’s e-Force AWD, a flexible midgate for extended cargo space and an onboard generator. The Surf-out truck looked smaller than a Frontier. But a production version — which would undoubtedly have a second row in the cabin — could be similar in size to the Frontier.
4
When will Nissan's new electric truck arrive?
Nissan
It's not clear yet when Nissan will bring an electric truck to market. We got our hopes up when Nissan announced a $500 million investment to convert its Canton Assembly plant to EV production for two new electric cars; Canton is where Nissan builds its Frontier and Titan pickups. But a supplier production schedule spotted by Automotive News, has Nissan building two sedans (one Nissan, one Infiniti) there by 2026 with crossovers following in 2027 and 2028.
Automotive News expects the current Frontier to stay in production through 2027. We could see an electric truck replace it or be an EV version of the truck that does replace it.
