Nissan is preparing to inject new life into its mid-size Frontier pickup. The company confirmed to MotorTrend at the New York Auto Show it plans to add a plug-in hybrid model to the truck’s lineup by 2028. It also plans to consolidate the Frontier and the Navara, a similarly sized pickup sold outside of North America, into one model.
Speaking on the Frontier’s future, Ponz Pandikuthira, chief planning officer for Nissan in the Americas, told MotorTrend that “for its [upcoming] lifecycle to make sense and be compliant, it will have to be electrified.”
Photo by: Jeff Perez / Motor1
A plug-in hybrid powertrain is the most logical solution for something like the Frontier, as it improves emissions and refines the driving experience without compromising on range, towing, or ruggedness.
“To keep that full spectrum of use, I think a plug-in hybrid would be the ultimate solution,” Pandikuthira told MotorTrend. We’re still working on it.”
The Frontier just received a mid-cycle refresh for 2025, getting a new fascia, a much-needed interior upgrade with a bigger touchscreen, and more towing. Currently, there’s just one powertrain configuration available: a 3.8-liter naturally aspirated V-6 making 310 horsepower and 281 pound-feet of torque. In our review, we called it “refreshingly old-school.”
A plug-in powertrain would help the Frontier to compete with the likes of the Toyota Tacoma, which offers an i-Force Max hybrid powertrain making 326 hp and 465 lb-ft of torque. But it won’t arrive until 2028, says Pandikuthira. “We need to have a solution by then,” he adds. “Three years from now.”
Frontier & Navara Become One?
Photo by: Jeff Perez / Motor1
The Mississippi-built Frontier isn’t the only mid-size pickup Nissan builds. There’s also the Navara, a truck built in Mexico for markets like South America and parts of Asia. Pandikuthira thinks there’s merit to combining the two into one global platform.
“Ideally, we’d like to have a global convergence solution,” he told MotorTrend.
The shared platform would be totally new, says Pandikuthira, designed to accept internal combustion-powered or hybrid drivetrains, as different markets dictate.
It’s unclear when such a platform would enter production, though considering the current Frontier will be seven years old in 2028, we wouldn’t be surprised to see it appear alongside the hybrid drivetrain.
This wouldn’t be the first time the Frontier shared a global platform. Prior to this current generation, the Frontier and Navara used the same ground-up design for nearly 25 years.
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