Increased Navara Warrior demand, Patrol popularity and global sign-offs continue to delay homegrown Patrol rock-crusher
The sell-out success of the Nissan Navara Pro-4X Warrior, supply constraints for the Patrol and continued homologation delays continue to hamper the launch of an Australian-developed Nissan Patrol Warrior bush-basher.
So says Nissan Australia, but the North American release of the new-generation Y63 Nissan Armada (on which Australia’s next Patrol will be based) late next year is likely to be another reason the homegrown Patrol Warrior business case is yet to be signed off.
Nissan Australia’s plan to produce a locally modified Y62 Patrol tailor-made for heavy-duty off-roading was first revealed in 2019 and Premcar – the company contracted by Nissan to convert the buffed-up Navara Warrior – has already undertaken some of the engineering work.
Like its dual-cab 4×4 ute cousin, the Nissan Patrol Warrior was expected to get a suspension lift kit bringing more ground clearance and wheel articulation, along with an integrated bullbar with improved approach angle, all-terrain wheels and tyres, underbody armour and a few cabin upgrades.
But development of the Aussie-engineered Nissan Patrol Warrior has been delayed several times already. Nissan Australia’s former managing director previously told carsales it would be a 2022 proposition, and more recently his successor said it remained ‘live’ program but wouldn’t appear until at least 2023.
Now it appears issues including the global semi-conductor shortage that is plaguing most major manufacturing industries, leading to lower Patrol production than demand, could further delay the Patrol Warrior – or kill off the program altogether.
Nissan is currently selling every Nissan Patrol it can get its hands on and posting record sales of the big V8 petrol-powered off-road SUV, which continues to command a long waiting list.
At the same time, Premcar’s 35-strong team at Epping in Melbourne’s north is modifying Navara Warriors at the record rate of 45 per week – up from 32 – reducing delivery wait times to about three months.
Premcar has increased its assembly line output to meet increased customer demand, which doesn’t leave much room for a second model like the Patrol Warrior to be produced simultaneously at present.
“We are selling every one we can convert,” said Nissan Australia managing director Adam Paterson. “We’ve done our best to ensure that we have been able to keep the converter operating with regulated supply.”
Premcar has now produced well over 1000 ‘Warrior 2.0’ vehicles, based on the upgraded Series 5 D23 Navara Pro-4X, following a similar number of original Warriors based on the Series 4 Navara N-TREK, and the homegrown Navara flagship accounts for more than a quarter of Pro-4X sales.
When asked if the Patrol Warrior program had been pushed back, Paterson said there is currently “No ETA on it”.
“Conversion programs take a lot of work with our global partners to make sure that everything’s homologated and we meet safety and crash [regulations] and all those type of things perfectly.
“We’re still looking at it but I don’t have a date,” he said of the Patrol Warrior.
Quizzed over whether customers might be able to place an order for the hotly-anticipated Toyota LandCruiser rival in 2023, Paterson dodged and weaved.
“The project is ongoing, but the car is not confirmed yet. We’re still working towards its confirmation,” he said.
That could be code for: ‘It’s not a priority at the moment because we’ve got bigger fish to fry’, but given an all-new Patrol could be little more than 18 months away, it’s now unclear whether the trail-ready Patrol will happen in its current generation.
Expected to arrive Down Under in 2024, the next-gen Y63 Patrol will reportedly ditch its 5.6-litre petrol V8 in favour of a smaller, more efficient V6.
That’s likely to further increase demand for the existing Y62 Patrol at a time when global supply chains continue to tighten, while Premcar could be kept busy producing Navara Warriors until the next-gen Navara arrives post-2024.
But Paterson said if Nissan had to make the choice between a homegrown Patrol Warrior and the Patrol NISMO (pictured), which is sold in other markets and has been studied for Australian introduction, the choice would be clear.
“For us, the Nissan Australia team feels that if there were a priority between the two, it would be Warrior over NISMO Patrol. Just based on the use case for that car; it gets used off-road here, not necessarily a commuter.”
Aside from tougher versions of the Navara and potentially Patrol, Nissan execs haven’t ruled out expanding the Australian Warrior range further, with the new-generation Pathfinder and X-TRAIL also under consideration for the local Warrior treatment.
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