Nissan is Readying a Slew of New Products to Boost Sales and Profitability

by Chris Teague

Published: April 25th, 2024

nissan is readying a slew of new products to boost sales and profitability

Nissan sales have languished in recent times, but the automaker has a turnaround plan that leans on improved products that will debut over the next several months. Automotive News obtained information from a recent Nissan dealer meeting that includes outlines for an updated Murano, Rogue, Armada, and more.

The long-running Murano will enter a new generation, gaining more luxury and an updated platform. It will lose the annoying continuously variable transmission in favor of a nine-speed automatic, a move that made the Pathfinder infinitely better to drive a couple of years ago. The crossover will also get a new front end and sportier proportions, though the plan is to make the Murano more luxurious than performance-oriented.

The Rogue gains a new Rock Creek Edition with a slight lift, beefier tires, and a roof rack, similar to the upgrades Nissan gave the Pathfinder that wears the nameplate. A dealer told Automotive News, “It’s a great move because we need a masculine kind of product. But it’s a populated segment for us with all of the configurations the Rogue already has.”

Nissan also detailed plans for partnerships with Mitsubishi and Honda, which will yield accelerated development of new powertrain tech. The automaker will expand its hybrid and plug-in hybrid offerings later in the decade, with new electrified models coming to supplement its currently gas-heavy catalog.

Though the Japanese automaker’s prospects haven’t looked bright, it believes the product push and an increased focus on its marketing campaigns paint a rosier picture of the future. The changes can’t come soon enough for dealers, who have struggled with sales and profitability selling Nissan vehicles.

[Image: Jonathon Weiss via Shutterstock]

Become a TTAC insider. Get the latest news, features, TTAC takes, and everything else that gets to the truth about cars first by subscribing to our newsletter.

#Nissan #NissanRogue #NissanMurano #nissandealers

Chris Teague

Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.

More by Chris Teague

Comments

Join the conversation

2 of 21 comments

JLGOLDEN on Apr 26, 2024

I disagree with the author's comment on the current Murano's "annoying CVT". Murano's CVT does not fake shifts like some CVTs attempt, therefore does not cause shift shock or driveline harshness while fumbling between set ratios. Murano's CVT feels genuinely smooth and lets the (great-sounding V6) engine sing and zing along pleasantly.

Like Reply
NJRide on Apr 27, 2024

Any new Infinitis in these plans? I feel like they might as well replace the QX50 with a Murano upgrade

Like Reply

Recent Comments

3-On-The-Tree My experience with turbos is that they don’t give good mpg.
GregLocock They will unless you don't let them. Every car manufacturing country around the world protects their local manufacturers by a mixture of legal and quasi legal measures. The exception was Australia which used to be able to design and manufacture every component in a car (slight exaggeration) and did so for many years protected by local design rules and enormous tariffs. In a fit of ideological purity the tariffs were removed and the industry went down the plughole, as predicted. This was followed by the precision machine shops who made the tooling, and then the aircraft maintenance business went because the machine shops were closed. Also of course many of the other suppliers closed.The Chinese have the following advantagesSlave laborCheap electricityZero respect for IPLong term planning
MaintenanceCosts Yes, and our response is making it worse.In the rest of the world, all legacy brands are soon going to be what Volvo is today: a friendly Western name on products built more cheaply in China or in companies that are competing with China from the bottom on the cost side (Vietnam, India, etc.) This is already more or less the case in the Chinese market, will soon be the case in other Asian markets, and is eventually coming to the EU market.We are going to try to resist in the US market with politicians' crack - that is, tariffs. Economists don't really disagree on tariffs anymore. Their effect is to depress overall economic activity while sharply raising consumer prices in the tariff-imposing jurisdiction.The effect will be that we will mostly drive U.S.-built cars, but they will be inferior to those built in the rest of the world and will cost 3x-4x as much. Are you ready for your BMW X5 to be three versions old and cost $200k? Because on the current path that is what's coming. It may be overpriced crap that can't be sold in any other world market, but, hey, it was built in South Carolina.The right way to resist would be to try to form our own alliances with the low-cost producers, in which we open our markets to them while requiring adherence to basic labor and environmental standards. But Uncle Joe isn't quite ready to sign that kind of trade agreement, while the orange guy just wants to tell those countries to GFY and hitch up with China if they want a friend.
CEastwood Thy won't get recruits who want to become police officers . They'll get nuts who want to become The Green Hornet .
1995 SC I stand by my assessment that Toyota put a bunch of "seasoned citizens" that cared not one iota about cars, asked them what they wanted and built it. This was the result. This thing makes a Honda Crosstour or whatever it was look like a Jag E type by comparison.