Nissan has shared more details on its revived Xterra, a rugged, body-on-frame SUV that will offer V6 power.
The Japanese brand has scrapped plans for an electric “adventure-focused SUV” slated to enter production in early 2028, switching gears to develop a new rugged SUV with petrol and hybrid powertrains instead.
The SUV, teased in 2025 as one of 10 new or refreshed vehicles planned for North America, is set to revive the Xterra off-road SUV nameplate when it enters production at Nissan’s plant in Canton, Mississippi.
Speaking with Car & Driver at the 2026 New York motor show, Nissan Americas senior vice president and chief product and planning officer, Ponz Pandikuthira, confirmed the new Xterra will launch with “a pure ICE [internal combustion engine]”, instead of an electric powertrain as had previously been indicated.
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“If we do ICE only, it will be V6, it won’t be a four-cylinder turbo,” he added. “Then we can build a hybrid off that.”
“What that hybrid execution looks like, when it debuts, how many months after the ICE version? Still a work in progress at this point.”
The Nissan executive confirmed the new Xterra wouldn’t be offered with a manual transmission, unlike previous generations, but will offer “super imposing” styling with “tough, in-your-face design cues”.
Though never sold here, the Xterra was produced primarily for the US market across two generations from 1999 to 2015. It was a rugged off-road SUV derived from the contemporary body-on-frame Navara (called Frontier there), and effectively served as a smaller, more adventure-focused alternative to the old Navara-based Pathfinder.
Once again, the new Xterra is set to share a platform with the Frontier, which is also built at Nissan’s Mississippi plant and is powered by a naturally aspirated 3.8-litre petrol V6.
Nissan is reportedly working on a new body-on-frame platform to underpin not only the Xterra and next-generation Frontier, but also the next Pathfinder and Infiniti QX60.
The Japanese brand is working on a new electrified powertrain for larger vehicles.
Nissan’s hybrid efforts are currently dominated by its e-Power series hybrid lineup, as seen in the Qashqai e-Power and X-Trail e-Power offered here but not in the US, which see the petrol engine used as a generator to charge the battery rather than driving the wheels.
While it doesn’t offer an e-Power version of the X-Trail in the US, Nissan sells a plug-in hybrid Rogue. This is simply a rebadged Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, and therefore lacks a Nissan-developed powertrain.
That said, Nissan also has the new, plug-in hybrid Frontier Pro, developed through a joint venture with China’s Dongfeng and closely related to the Dongfeng Z9 ute. It’s unclear whether the Frontier Pro’s Chinese origins could limit any connection between it and the US-built Xterra.
In any case, the revived Xterra will be an important introduction for Nissan in the US. Since the nameplate’s departure in 2015, Nissan has been without a competitor to the popular Toyota 4Runner, a historic Xterra rival, and the newer Ford Bronco.
The decision not to offer a fully electric powertrain is also consistent with recent news from the Japanese brand. It has already pulled the electric Ariya SUV from its US lineup after just three years on sale, and has cancelled the American launch of a more affordable version of its only remaining EV, the Leaf.
In Australia, Nissan confirmed the new-generation Leaf has been delayed “indefinitely”, saying the “timing’s not right” and instead choosing to focus on its e-Power hybrids.
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