The new Nissan Titan half-ton comes in about a foot shorter than the Titan XD.
In an unusual move, Nissan launched its all-new Titan pickup line with the XD, or medium-duty model, last December. Now it’s ready to go after the heart of the truck market with the half-ton model.
The Japanese maker revealed some of the details of the standard-edition Titan in Chicago, just in time for the Windy City’s annual auto show press preview. Among other things, Nissan plans to lift a page from Detroit’s pickup handbook, offering the new Titan in a wide range of cab, drivetrain and bed configurations.
Together Titan and Titan XD will cover nearly 85 percent of the total full-size truck market,” said Rich Miller, Nissan’s product planning director for trucks, SUVs and commercial vehicles. The half-ton will target the highest-volume segments, the XD providing a bridge for those who want more capabilities than a standard truck but who can’t afford – or who don’t need – a traditional heavy-duty model.
(Nissan earnings jump 24% for the latest quarter. Click Here for details.)
The half-ton may share the Titan badge, but it actually is built on a separate platform than the XD. It measures just over 228 inches in overall length, 11.8 inches shorter than its big brother, but at 79.5 inches, they’re the same width. And where the XD features a 151.6-inch wheelbase, the half-ton Nissan Titan’s is 139.8 inches.
Nissan isn't ready to release cargo capacity or towing figures for the 2017 Titan.
The two Titan versions share the same cab sizes, but not much else, stressed Miller. “The Titan and Titan XD do not share any common chassis components. Even the lug nuts are different.”
Where the Titan XD made its debut exclusively offering a new Cummins turbodiesel engine, the half-ton Titan will be powered initially by Nissan’s 5.6-liter Endurance V-8. That engine produces 390 horsepower and 401-horsepower. The V-8 is shared with the new 2017 Nissan Armada, incidentally, though the SUV is no longer based off the same platform as the Titan.
(Click Here for more on the 2017 Nissan Armada.)
Buyers will be able to choose from all- or rear-drive powertrain layouts. Nissan will also offer a V-6 engine for the half-ton Titan pickup, but it plans to offer details on that second engine option at a later date.
The standard Titan will eventually offer two engines, rear and all-wheel-drive, three cabs, three beds and five trim levels.
While Nissan won’t offer a full heavy-duty line-up, it will offer a number of body variants – three cabins, in fact: Crew Cab, King Cab and Single Cab, as well as 5.5, 6,5 and 8-foot beds. As with the XD, the half-ton Titan will also be offered in five different trim levels, from base S to Platinum Reserve.
The standard model will go into production this coming summer on the same Canton, Mississippi line as the Titan XD. Nissan shifted production of the Armada pickup to Japan to provide more capacity for the new pickups.
Pricing will be released closer to the launch of sales. The 2016 Nissan Titan XD starts at $41,000.
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