Nissan will roll out 20 new and updated products in less than two years for the North American market, top company executives told dealers meeting in Las Vegas this week. That will bring the return of the Xterra, for one thing, as well as a hybrid version of the brand’s best-selling Rogue model. Infiniti will also benefit from the plans, top officials, including global CEO Ivan Espinosa, said. More from Headlight.News.
The launch of the 2026 Nissan Leaf is going forward, as planned.
Struggling to regain a footing in the North American market, Nissan has some major product plans in the works, with 20 new and updated models set to launch in the U.S. and Canada by spring 2027, senior officials told worried retailers who gathered in Las Vegas for their annual dealer meeting this week.
Nissan already has confirmed it will bring out an entirely new version of the Leaf EV for 2026, migrating to a crossover body style. There will be other key products getting makeovers during the next 20 or so months, according to senior officials including global CEO Ivan Espinosa and Christian Meunier, the chairman of Nissan Americas. Among other moves, the off-road-ready Xterra SUV will be available for the first time in the U.S. since the 2015 model year.
“We are laser-focused on product [and] we are just getting started,” Meunier told dealers, according to a report in Automotive News. “We have done a better job of planning, making sure the right cars are in the right place.”
A “pivotal moment”
Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa
It’s fairly uncommon for Japanese automakers to bring their top global executives over for a U.S. dealer meeting, but Espinosa clearly is concerned about getting the North American market back on track as it is expected to be essential to the turnaround strategy he took on after being named CEO earlier this year.
“We are at a pivotal moment for this company,” he told the retailers. “We are taking action fast to address our weaknesses and strengthen our business fundamentals.”
Among other things, seven of Nissan’s 17 global assembly plants will close, resulting in a 1 million vehicle reduction in production capacity. About 20,000 jobs also will be eliminated. But the plan aims to speed up the product development process to help Nissan better flex with changing market conditions.
“I’m confident we know what needs to be done to turn things around,” Espinosa said in Las Vegas.
A wave of new, electrified products
A new Nissan Rogue will get the automaker’s e-Power hybrid system.
While it’s a relatively small contributor on the sales charts, the Nissan Leaf has an outsized profile due to its role as the first mainstream EV to hit the U.S. market back in 2011. It’s become little more than an asterisk on those charts in recent years, but Nissan is betting the third-generation battery-electric vehicle can regain some traction. The 2026 Leaf will switch to an SUV-style body, gain performance and range and add more appealing technology, Nissan has confirmed.
The automaker lags behind key Asian competitors, including Toyota, Honda and the Hyundai Motor Group, when it comes to electrified offerings. But it aims to start catching up under the new plan.
Rogue – which Meunier called the “center of gravity, the bread and butter” for Nissan — gets a redesign in 2027. The compact crossover will feature an electrified option using the latest version of the automaker’s e-Power hybrid system.
Infiniti, which has suffered from a dwindling mix of products, will start seeing new offerings roll out, including a model to be dubbed the QX50 which also will use the e-Power technology. With its dual-motor hybrid, the new QX50 is expected to become “our number one volume driver,” Infiniti Americas Vice President Tiago Castro told dealers, according to the report.
More Nissan News
- Nissan Turns Over a New Leaf
- Nissan Names a “Car Guy” as its New CEO
- A Week With the 2025 Nissan Armada
Xterra returns
The Nissan Xterra has been out of the market since 2015.
At a time when automakers are racing to bring out more rugged SUVs and CUVs, Nissan could be well positioned for the return of the Xterra. The classically styled SUV was abandoned in 2015 due to declining sales. But Nissan believes the market is primed for its return.
Specific details weren’t released but the revived Xterra is expected to remain a body-on-frame design, sharing platforms a new version of the Frontier pickup now under development. That approach will make it more suitable for serious trail-riders and overlanders – and better positioned to capitalize on a trend that has seen plenty of rugged new utility vehicles, such as the Subaru Wilderness family.
In its new form, the Nissan Xterra is expected to get at least one electrified powertrain option. That could include e-Power, though other reports suggest it will be offered with a range extender capable of delivering up to 75 miles per charge before its internal combustion engine kicks in. As opposed to more familiar plug-in hybrid technology, the ICE system would serve solely as a generator, producing current either to keep the battery pack charged or to power the electric motors driving the SUV’s wheels.
As part of Nissan’s revised production plan, the new Xterra is set to be assembled at Nissan’s underutilized factory in Canton, Mississippi, alongside the Frontier.
0 Comments