Seriously? Nissan Intends To Quintuple Titan Volume and Market Share

By broadening its lineup, rethinking the dealer approach, and focusing on prime markets, Nissan intends to increase its Titan pickup truck’s share of America’s full-size market to 5 percent.

5 percent. One in twenty trucks. One Titan for every 19 Ford F-Series, Chevrolet Silverado, Ram P/U, GMC Sierra, and Toyota Tundra.

That doesn’t sound so crazy, does it?

Nah, at least until you realize that in 2016, Nissan sold fewer than 22,000 Titans, or slightly less than 1 percent market share.

There are reasons to believe Nissan could get there, but there are at least as many reasons — if not more — to believe the 5 percent market share goal, equal to roughly 112,000 annual Titan sales, is unreasonable, if not outlandish.

LINEUP

With the arrival of the King Cab, Nissan will now have the semi-heavy-duty Titan XD with gas and diesel engines plus the regular-duty Titan with the V8 engine in crew, single, and extended cabs. Nissan’s Titan lineup has never been this exhaustive, not even when annual Titan volume peaked at 86,945 units in its first-generation’s first full year, 2005.

Nissan’s full-size pickup truck market share at that time: 3.5 percent.

DEALERS

This includes fronting dealer lots with trucks and employing specialists in the truck and commercial vehicle sector as well as intensive training in order for sales consultants to know how to sell a Versa Note and a Titan Platinum Reserve.

“You’ve got to know trucks and talk trucks when these customers come in,” Diaz says.

MARKETS

In January, for instance, Nissan pointed out that the Titan outsold the far more common Toyota Tundra in Omaha, Nebraska and Salt Lake City, Utah. Granted, that’s not exactly Dallas, let alone America, but the Titan had never achieved that result in the past.

LOYALTY

More than 90 percent of full-size truck buyers choose a pickup from one of the traditional Detroit marques. Not only does Titan need to convince a large chunk of those buyers to purchase or lease a Titan, that stage of persuasion isn’t possible until Nissan has persuaded buyers to come and have a look. That’s a hugely challenging task in a market with such entrenched loyalty.

ADVANCES

Ford brought the ten-speed automatic to the F-150 for the 2017 model year and has thoroughly refreshed the F-150 for the 2018 model year, adding a diesel engine and improving its current stable of powerplants. GM and Ram drop special edition trucks seemingly every day at breakfast, lunch, and supper.

PRODUCT

More importantly, Titan fails on the fuel economy front, with the most efficient four-wheel-drive Titan rated at 15 miles per gallon city and 21 mpg on the highway. We measured 12.7 mpg in our test.

“The 2017 Nissan Titan needed to be better than its high-volume rivals,” I wrote last month in a Titan review. “It needed to be better than good enough. It isn’t.”

Of course, Nissan can earn the 5-percent market share and 100,000+ annual sales results the company desires. Virtually any automaker can.

For every vehicle, there is a price point where any level of market share is theoretically possible, though likely not profitable.

Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures. Follow on Twitter @goodcarbadcar and on Facebook.