Nissan could be bringing back one of its most iconic off-roaders

Tucked away in the back of a teaser image released by Nissan earlier this week was a boxy new SUV, and now we have some more details about the model.

In announcing its future product plans earlier this week, Nissan said it would commence production of a new, electric “adventure-focused SUV” at its Canton, Mississippi plant.

Production will begin at the end of Japanese fiscal year 2027, which ends on March 31, 2028.

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Nissan stopped short of revealing a name for this model, but the boxy silhouette appears heavily inspired by the Xterra.

Though never sold here, the Xterra was produced across two generations from 1999 to 2015 as a rugged off-roader derived from the contemporary Navara.

In effect, it was a smaller, more adventure-focused counterpart to the old Navara-based Pathfinder, before that model morphed into a car-based crossover.

InsideEVs reports it viewed the upcoming Nissan EV, along with a raft of other future products, at Nissan’s Full Speed Ahead event in Atsugi, Japan.

The example it saw featured an integrated roof basket, knobby all-terrain tyres and an asymmetric rear window – elements seen on past Xterras.

But before you go thinking this new EV will be as rugged as the old Xterras, Nissan shared a word of caution.

“We have to take care of how much we promise by the looks,” Nissan design head Alfonso Albaisa said during a media roundtable, in remarks reported by InsideEVs.

“Because, in fact, is that the kind of thing you want to take deep into Oregon and stuff like that? You know, that’s not necessarily the concept. But it’s very true that people are rebelling against the [design] language of conventional EVs.

“We feel that this kind of language would be something desired, a bit more of an authentic SUV look even though it’s not body-on-frame.”

That suggests it could share the CMF-EV architecture with Nissan’s other electric crossovers, the Ariya and upcoming third-generation Leaf.

The Ariya is available with 65kWh and 90kWh battery packs, and a selection of drivetrains, starting with a 160kW/300Nm front-wheel drive setup and topping out with a 320kW/600Nm all-wheel drive dual-motor system in the hottest Nismo model.

Nissan hasn’t confirmed what the new EV will be called, but Car & Driver recently reported Nissan had filed an application to protect the Xterra name.

Production of the second-generation Xterra ended in the US in 2015. The first-generation model also ended production in China in 2015, where it was known as the Paladin.

A Navara-based SUV lived on in markets like China and the Middle East, known as the Terra. This was also eventually renamed X-Terra in the Middle East, however this Navara-based SUV was considerably larger than the old Xterra and more of a Ford Everest rival.

With the Pathfinder, there’s precedent for a name once used on a rugged, body-on-frame SUV to migrate to a more road-biased unibody crossover.

Also joining the Nissan SUV at the Canton plant in the following fiscal year will be an Infiniti, inspired by the Vision QXe concept.

This was a coupe crossover concept teased in 2023, though while extensive imagery was released of the related Vision Qe sedan concept, there was just one image of the SUV.

Infiniti has moved to an SUV-only lineup, with the Nissan Patrol-based QX80 and Pathfinder-based QX60 set to be joined by a large coupe crossover by April 2027. This will be inspired by the old FX/QX70.

The two EVs appear to have taken the place of a duo of previously teased passenger cars – one Nissan, one Infiniti – which Nissan announced in 2022 would enter production at Canton in 2025.

Neither vehicle appeared in product plans announced this week.