A few weeks ago, Nissan confirmed it’s bringing an Xterra-inspired EV into production. But what about bringing back the real thing? Burly off-road SUVs have enjoyed a massive jump in popularity since the Xterra ended production in 2015, and that fact has not gone unnoticed at Nissan. They’re working hard to bring back Nissan’s beloved off-roader, and not as an EV.
“We want to bring an Xterra back, we’re working very closely on it,” Ponz Pandikuthira Nissan USA’s head of product planning in an interview with Motor1 at the New York International Auto Show. He further referenced Vinay Shahani, Nissan USA’s head of sales and marketing as also being pro-Xterra.
Photo by: Nissan
“Vinay is a huge fan, I’m a huge fan, we’re trying to find a way to do it,” said Pandikuthira.
They want the new Xterra to live up to the reputation of its forebearers, too. “Xterra stood for something, and that’s why it was so successful,” Pandikuthira continued. “Everything that you need, nothing that you don’t. It’s got to be rugged, it’s got to be capable, and we think there’s a very good way to do this, and it’s probably not ideal to bring an EV to replace that.”
The thought is that the Xterra-inspired EV Nissan teased a few weeks back will be for people who live in cities and enjoy outdoor activities like camping on the weekend. “For the one who wants to relive the old Xterra, but they’re older, they have more money to spend, maybe want a slightly bigger car, we’ve got a plan in place. Stay close to us and we’ll make it happen.”
For Shahani, who was previously the Xterra brand manager, this endeavor is almost personal.
“If I look around and see where other OEMs have gone into that space, I feel like that’s our rightful place,” he told us. And it fills a key spot in Nissan’s lineup today. “It’s just an iconic vehicle, and when you add it to the lineup we have today, it kind of rounds us out.”
Shahani pays close attention to what people say about Nissan on social media, and he said the second most common question he sees is “When is the Xterra coming back?” (The first is the same, but for the GT-R.)
“[Pandikuthira] and I are very aligned on where this brand needs to go, what we need to have in the lineup, and we’re excited about the idea of bringing it back, we’ve just got to create the business case.”
If Pandikuthira and Shahani can convince the powers that be, it’ll be at least a few years before we’d see a new Xterra. But it’s an idea they’re both clearly jazzed about.
