- Nissan rules out a factory-backed Navara Nismo truck.
- A rugged Mitsubishi Triton Ralliart is still in the horizon.
- The Navara and the Triton ride on the same underpinnings.
The midsize pickup wars keep escalating in Australia, with rugged models like the upcoming Nissan Navara Warrior and the Mitsubishi Triton Raider leading the charge. Bad news for the faithful, though. Anyone holding out for a Navara Nismo can stop waiting. That project looks dead. The better news is that one floor over, at Alliance partner Mitsubishi, a Triton Ralliart is starting to look like a real possibility.
Starting with the Nismo, for the better part of the past decade, senior Nissan figures floated the idea of a baja-style Navara with the kind of regularity that usually precedes a production green light. And with Nissan planning to grow its global Nismo range to 10 models by 2028, the math seemed to add up. It won’t. The truck isn’t getting the Nismo badge after all.
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Speaking to Drive.com.au, Nissan Australia’s aftersales director Michael Hill said: “I’d love to see Nismo everything, but there’s no plan for a Nismo Navara.” That effectively shuts the door on anything wilder than the upcoming Navara Pro-4X Warrior, developed in Australia by engineering firm Premcar with off-road-focused exterior and chassis upgrades.
Nissan Navara Warrior Concept
The new generation of the Nissan Navara is based on the underpinnings of the Mitsubishi Triton that recently got a new Raider special edition, also developed with the help of Premcar. The rugged truck benefits from bespoke suspension tuning, different wheels, and underbody protection but keeps the standard turbodiesel engine, as is the case with its Nissan Warrior sibling.
More: Mitsubishi Confirms The Return Of The Pajero And Montero
Here’s where the two brands diverge. Nissan is out on a hot Navara, but Mitsubishi might just build a Ralliart. Bruce Hampel, Mitsubishi Australia’s General Manager of Product Strategy, framed the Triton Raider to Drive as “the first step of a journey that we’re embarking on here to try to bring back the Ralliart brand to Australia.”
He didn’t stop there. “If this program proves to resonate well with the customers and it’s successful for us, and we can demonstrate to Mitsubishi Motors Corporation that there is a market for these types of vehicles, the next step is to go that one level higher and bring back the Ralliart brand.”
Nissan Triton Raider
In other words, Mitsubishi might green-light a flagship Triton Ralliart on the strength of the Triton Raider’s sales. It would make a fitting companion to the Ralliart-branded rally truck that has already claimed two victories at the Asia Cross Country Rally.
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The Mitsubishi official admitted that while the Triton Raider “has great suspension and off-road capability as well” it is “not quite deserving of the Ralliart brand” as it would need “more uniqueness” to demand that branding.
Those comments suggest that a Triton Ralliart would likely come with performance upgrades alongside unique styling and chassis tweaks to justify its positioning at the top of the range. Those features could help it compete with the Ford Ranger Raptor which remains the undisputed king of baja-inspired trucks.
