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Navara to unveil on November 19
Richard Bosselman
October 15, 2025
NZ release timing? It’ll show some time in the first half of 2026.
NAVARA fans keen to see how Nissan has crafted the new generation from a ‘certain other’ now well-established here haven’t long to wait.
Nissan has advised today that November 19 is when the covers are coming off the next-generation of its ute, a big re-engineering of the Mitsubishi Triton that has been here since the start of 2024, with sale to start sometime in the first half of 2026.
Meantime, it has made public the feel good ‘heritage film’ here that is both a reminiscence and a partial reveal.
The start of the pre-reveal promotion comes as Nissan NZ appears to have largely completed an aggressive runout of the existing truck, to make way for the new.
Jointly developed with the Triton under a technical alliance between the brands, the next Navara has previously been spun as an early 2026 arrival.
A year ago Nissan used a global media briefing about its medium-term business plan to indicate the replacement will launch in Oceania by fiscal year 2026, which ends on March 31, 2026.
However, with Nissan in a doldrums and keen to restore international confidence, regional comment earlier this year raised thought it might be on sale in some markets before Christmas.
Nissan Oceania chief Andrew Humberstone, who bases in Melbourne and ultimately oversees NZ as well as Australia, expressed concern in February about the rollout starting with budget workplace editions, with pricier types adding subsequently.
Humberstone said then he preferred an opposite approach. Get the glam, high-profit types, mainly favoured by recreational users, out first, and after that gradually filling out the family with cheaper options.
Nissan NZ subsequently expressed though that “in terms of the Oceania region (New Zealand and Australia) all we can confirm at this point is that an all-new one-ton (sic) pickup will be launched in FY26…. ie between April 2026 and March 2027.”
The current model released in 2014 and last updated in 2021.
Navara was the country’s fourth most popular ute in 2024 and seems set to hold that position in 2025.
Much about the replacement is still under wraps, but it has been confirmed the model will use the underpinning and drivetrain frrom Triton (above).
That means introduction of a 2.4-litre biturbo diesel making 150kW/470Nm and a six-speed automatic with full-time four-wheel-drive, some employing Mitsubishi’s bespoke Super Select.
That’s in place of the current type’s twin-turbo 2.3-litre diesel, good for 140kW/450Nm, also always all-paw but with seven-speed automatic.
As much as Mitsubishi has been the leader of the ute project and Nissan the ‘follower’, the latter has been strong in its insistence that there will be clear differentiation between the Triton and Navara.
Humberstone has refuted the new vehicle will be no more than a badge-engineering exercise, saying said his brand’s version will be “very much a Nissan”.
“We are making sure that it's very much a Nissan. So we'll be making a number of changes to make sure that that's the case.”
Nissan believes it has benefits in technology it can add to the project, rather than simply taking a Triton and putting its own skin on it.
