Nissan Could Join The Electric Truck Bandwagon With A Titan Ev

The electric truck craze shows no sign of slowing down as a new report is indicating Nissan is eyeing a Titan EV.
The electric truck craze shows no sign of slowing down as a new report is indicating Nissan is eyeing a Titan EV.
In this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Consumer Editor Jeremy Korzeniewski and News Editor Joel Stocksdale. They kick things off discussing a whole raft of big car debuts this week that would have undoubtedly been part of the L.A. Auto Show if it happened this year. Some of those big reveals include the new Honda Civic, Subaru BRZ and Jeep Wrangler 392. They follow that with some other news highlights and end with green crossover-themed "Spend My Money" segment.
It has been over a year since we caught the next-gen Toyota Tundra pickup out testing, but that changes today. New spy shots show the full-size truck running around in a thick layer of camouflage and coverings.
Just like the first time we spotted a next-gen Tundra, this one is sporting skirts, brushes and other materials to block our view of the rear suspension. But the big news is that under the camouflage is what looks like a totally new and different truck. Both times we previously spied the Tundra, it was still the same cab and truck underneath. Toyota didn't even bother to cover up the doors. This truck looks entirely different with a new cab design, hugely different front end, massively different mirrors and new elements to pore over everywhere.
As the rush to battery-powered pickups grabs more headlines, Nissan is said to be interested in getting its slow-selling Titan full-size pickup in on the action. According to a report by Bloomberg, the company is exploring a partnership with EV startup Hercules that would have the nascent Detroit-based electric-pickup manufacturer supply electric powertrains for Nissan. Nissan, in return would provide unnamed truck components for Hercules' own Alpha pickup.
It has previously been reported that Nissan would trim the Titan model range, dropping unpopular variants such as the single-cab version and the diesel, as part of a company-wide initiative to cut costs. But full-size pickups generally are huge profit centers for their makers, and Nissan surely wants to keep the Titan viable. An electric Titan would join the thundering herd of upcoming battery-powered pickups such as the Tesla Cybertruck, Ford's Electric F-150, GM's Hummer EV, the Rivian R1T, the Lordstown Endurance, and Bollinger B2 among others.
Enthusiasts hoping the second-generation Subaru BRZ would break cover with a turbocharged engine were sorely disappointed. Unveiled this week, it receives a bigger engine that delivers more horsepower and torque, but it remains naturally aspirated. Subaru explained why its engineers ruled out adopting forced induction.
Power for the BRZ comes from a 2.4-liter flat-four that's related to the engine found in the Ascent, but the turbo didn't make the leap from the crossover to the coupe due to weight, packaging, and cost restrictions. Dominick Infante, the head of Subaru's public relations team, told Road & Track that turbocharging the BRZ would have required mounting the engine higher, which would have compromised handling by raising the center of gravity.
For time immemorial, or at least the past six years, Toyota and Lexus have sat at the top of Consumer Reports' annual survey of vehicle reliability. It was almost as much a given as blue skies and taxes. Not any more. Mazda has dethroned them both, ascending to the No. 1 spot for the first time.
According to the report, Mazda nabbed the top spot with powertrains and that used durable (and more fun) six-speed automatic transmissions instead of CVTs, which tend to be more fragile. Mazda also didn't rely on overly fancy infotainment systems, instead bucking industry trends with cockpits that discourage screen use during driving and encourage buttons and dials that can be handled without taking your eyes off the road. The most reliable Mazda was the MX-5 with a score of 98 out of 100, followed by the CX-30, CX-3, and CX-5, all scoring 85 or better.
Presented in its current form just last year, the new generation Nissan Sentra has been updated for 2021 with new features and is already on sale at dealers across the nation.
Other than the Land Cruiser, Toyota's longest-running model is the Crown, a large rear-wheel-drive sedan that has been a mainstay on Japanese streets for 65 years. It has faithfully served as taxis, police cars, town cars, and something a Japanese grandfather would proudly own. However, a new report from a major Japanese newspaper, the Chunichi Shimbun, says Toyota will be killing it off next year.
The Crown was introduced in 1955, at a time when most Japanese citizens could not afford their own vehicles. Most cars were sold to taxi services, but their ubiquity made them a staple of city streets. It was even Toyota's first import to the U.S., sold here from 1957-71. Each successive generation grew more luxurious as Japan's economy boomed, and the model became synonymous with Toyota's decades-long dominance of the domestic market.
Catalin Matei, principal designer at Acura, was the exterior design lead for the original 2001 MDX and had the same job for the new MDX Prototype. That's just plain cool, and it makes him the MDX person of record when it comes to design.
Thankfully, Acura put him in front of a camera with the original and the new Prototype to talk design. That video is at the top of this post.
Subaru revealed the 2022 BRZ early Wednesday morning with a 228-horsepower, naturally aspirated boxer engine and a curb weight under 2,900 pounds, even with its optional automatic transmission.
On paper, the 2022 BRZ appears to carry on in the spirit of its predecessor. While it does get an additional 23 hp and 28 pound-feet of torque thanks to its new 2.4-liter horizontally opposed engine, just about everything else on the 2022 BRZ's spec sheet appears to pick up right where the 2020 model left off.
The 2022 Honda Civic has been officially revealed, and as expected, it looks much more like its bigger Accord cousin than the Civic it's replacing. It's technically called a "prototype," but it's safe to assume that the production model will look just like this. Honda also provided a preview of the interior and just a couple of details about feature set and availability.
Digging deeper into the exterior, you can see the Accord influence in the smooth body panels, the long shoulder line that runs the length of the car, and the window line that bumps up at the C-pillar. The proportions differ a bit from the Accord, though. The nose is longer and lower relative to the rest of the body, and the trunk lid is short. It almost looks as though it could be rear-wheel drive. The car also features a small grille with a body color accent similar to that on the new Honda Fit, and the trunk has a distinct lip spoiler to it.
Infiniti wants a bigger slice of the huge crossover pie, so it is preparing the introduction of yet another model: the QX55.
We're hours away from the official unveiling of the 2022 Subaru BRZ sports coupe. To coincide with what would have been the week of the 2020 Los Angeles Auto Show, Subaru will unveil the new BRZ to the world on Wednesday, Nov. 18, at 9 a.m. EST.
The live reveal will be hosted on Subaru's 2022 BRZ landing page, which currently houses teaser videos of the redesigned coupe being driven on some gorgeous mountain roads. We will update this post if Subaru provides any other means to watch the unveiling.
The 2022 Honda Civic will finally be unveiled tonight, and you can watch the reveal of the small sedan right here. It starts at 9:45 p.m. Eastern and will be broadcast on Twitch, but we'll have the stream included on this post, too.
We've actually seen a fair bit of the new Honda Civic thanks to patent renderings of both the sedan and hatchback bodystyles, which you can see at the embedded links. What we've seen so far is that the design will be heavily influenced by the current Accord. We also know that the coupe has been cancelled, but there will be Si and Type R variants coming down the road.