Nissan's next-generation Titan full-size pickup will hit dealer show rooms late in 2016.

The hot-selling full-size pickup truck segment is getting another new player: Nissan confirmed that the newly redesigned version of its full-size Titan pickup will make its debut towards the end of 2016.

The replacement for the Titan, which was first introduced in 2003 as a 2004 model, has been a long time coming. It will mark a new assault on the U.S. pickup truck market by Nissan.

However, truck owners can get an idea of what the next-gen Titan will be like with the debut of the new Titan XD, which will be sold with an optional diesel engine built by Cummins.

The Titan XD just went into production at Nissan’s assembly plant in Canton, Mississippi, and was specifically designed and engineered in the U.S. to fit into the “white space” between the full-size pickup and the larger heavy-duty pickups built by the Ford Motor Co, General Motors Co. and FCA US.

Nissan also sell the midsize Frontier, which competes with the Toyota Tacoma and Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon.

The top-of-the-line Titan XD Platinum Series. The XD fills the "white space" between full-size and heavy-duty pickup trucks.

(Nissan Titan XD takes “Truck of Texas” title. For more, Click Here.)

Nissan’s original effort to crack the lucrative U.S. pickup truck market ran into major headwinds shortly after its introduction as a 2004 model. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 drove up the price of gasoline and the subsequent slowdown in the U.S. housing market, which fed the 2008 financial crisis.

Sales of the Titan peaked almost immediately at roughly 91,000 units and have declined to about 15,000 units so far this year. Ford, the market leader, sold more than 65,000 pick full-size and heavy-duty pick-up trucks: in November alone.

But the demand for pickup trucks, which dropped to approximately 1 million units during the recession, has rebounded smartly and is expected to exceed 2.2 million units this year, making it a lucrative target for a manufacturer such as Nissan, which has managed to establish a foothold in the segment.

Phil O’Connor, director of marketing for Nissan Trucks, said Nissan prefers not to make sales projections, but given the size of the pickup truck segment Nissan believes that its two-truck strategy that its beginning to rollout can match or surpass the early sales numbers put up by the Titan in its first year of sales.

(Click Here for TDB’s First Drive in the new Nissan Titan XD.)

Nissan hasn’t disclosed how much it has spent on the new truck. But Richard Miller, director of product planning for trucks and sport utility vehicles for Nissan, said the program involves the development of separate frames and chassis for the Titan XD and for the next generation Titan due in showrooms next year.

The cabs of both trucks have been communized but Nissan bypassed its own diesel engines and elected to purchase a 5.0-liter diesel capable of producing 310 horsepower and 555 foot pounds of torque from Cummins.

The Titan XD powered by a Cummins will have a payload of more than 2,000 pounds and will be capable of towing up to 12,000 pounds with a goose-neck hitch or fifth wheel.

(To see why truck sales are propelling automakers to a record year, Click Here.)

Ultimately the new full-size truck coming next year will account for the largest portion of sales in the segment, but the XD is expected to bring new customers to the Nissan truck line, he said.