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Nissan Titan Truckumentary looks back through the brand's trucks [w/video]

In a prologue last month, Nissan promised us more of its Titan Truckumentary in December, and here it is. This is a set-the-stage episode, surveying the brand's truck history in the US from the 1960 Datsun 1200, one of the first vehicles it sold here, to the first truck it manufactured here in 1983 in Smyrna, TN, to the nineties Hardbody and the 1999 SUT Concept, among others. Pickup-truck-lifer Brent Hagan, the product planner for the next-generation Titan - designed and engineered in the US - is our tour guide for this episode. If anything, after watching this video all we could think was, "Nissan, please bring back the good old days."

Nissan and Mitsubishi reportedly working on a 1-ton pickup for the U.S.

We can probably consider it a testament to how far ex-Nissan Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn veered the conglomerate off the straight and narrow that Nissan continues to restate its global aims. Four years ago, Ghosn successor CEO Makoto Uchida announced Nissan Next, part of the plan's global initiatives to "[Focus] on global core model segments including enhanced C and D segment vehicles, electric vehicles, sport cars," "Introduce 12 models in the next 18 months," and "[Expand] presence in EVs and electric-motor-driven cars, including e-POWER, with more than 1 million electrified sales units expected a year by end of FY23." About 18 months later, the automaker expanded on detail with Ambition 2030, which would invest 2 trillion yen ($13.2 billion U.S.) through 2026, part of which would pay for launching 23 new electrified models, 15 of those pure-electric and planned to hit the market by 2027. It's been a tough row to hoe. Now, at the end of Nissan's fiscal year in March, Uchida announced a revised business plan called The Arc. This would put 30 new models on the market by the end of fiscal year 2026 (March 2027), 16 of which will be electrified. Note the climbdown: Ambition 2030 wanted to put 23 electrified vehicles on the market, 15 of them pure-electric, The Arc wants 30 total vehicles, 16 electrified, eight of them pure-electric. A report in Automotive News says one of those BEVs could be an electric one-ton pickup that Nissan will develop with Mitsubishi for the North American market, as well as a plug-in hybrid powertrain that will power an unknown body style and could also serve the pickup. The PHEV would come first, no surprise based on trends in the EV market. Mitsubishi would develop the PHEV powertrain, perhaps an evolution of the system sold in the Outlander PHEV here and the Eclipse Cross PHEV in international markets like Australia. Bringing a PHEV would give Mitsu a third plug-in model, and give Nissan a second to go along with the China-specific Venucia-brand PHEV that launched last year. Beyond giving Nissan a much needed hybrid to sell in the U.S. — the automaker doesn't sell any here now — it would give Mitsubishi dealers some much needed new product.  The pickup, on the other hand, would employ Nissan's EV expertise. It's planned for our market sometime between March 31, 2027, and the same date in 2031. This could make it a part of Nissan's planned family of next-gen modular EVs that debut after the eight models coming by 2026.

Nissan Titan Wounded Warrior project lands in time for Veteran's Day

We last featured the crowdsourced Project Titan pickup back in September, back when Nissan revealed that its big, bruising custom pickup would take to the wilds of Alaska with a pair of veterans from the Wounded Warrior Project at the wheel.
Now, their journey across the wilds has been fully revealed as part of a 22-minute short film. David Guzman and Kevin McMahon are the pilots of the brutish truck, and while the film is ostensibly focused on the journey and the challenges that come with it, the release of the video on Veterans Day (Remembrance Day or Armistice Day, depending on where you're from), gives some indication to the dominant theme of the story - recovery.
The two travel across Alaska in the Titan on different missions, working with both veterans and civilians afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as supporters of the Wounded Warrior Project. From the avalanche-surviving photographer who's suffering from PTSD to an Air Force veteran who routinely takes recovering vets on fishing trips, the pair experience the many efforts at recovery and support throughout the course of the missions and their journey.