Tuesday morning, The Drive
reported that Nissan was killing off the XD Cummins diesel version of its Titan pickup truck for the 2020 model year. Now, we’ve also learned that Nissan is ending production of the regular cab Titan with its upcoming refresh.
The news, first reported by The Car Connection, was confirmed to The Drive by Nissan spokesperson Wendy Orthman who explained that all regular-cab Titan models—half-ton and XD—are going away to “focus on the heart of the truck market.” This makes sense since sales haven’t been stellar, and we all know from business school that complexity adds cost. Detroit’s “Big Three” can get away with it because they sell millions of trucks per year; it’s more difficult for smaller makes like Nissan and Toyota to provide such low-demand offerings.
This means that going forward, the Titan will only be available in King Cab (extended cab) or Crew Cab configurations.
Regular cab trucks are often favored by businesses, who either need a basic work pickup or remove the bed for upfits and don’t need the extra people hauling capacity of a larger cab.
It should be noted that Ram hasn’t introduced a regular cab version of its new half-ton yet, leaving buyers to opt for the Ram Classic if they only need or want two doors. Chevrolet and GMC are also rolling out the two-door versions of their updated trucks last. While they aren’t getting rid of regular cab half-tons like Nissan, it does show that profitability lies in the larger, family-hauling trucks.
A work-focused version of the Titan pickup will supposedly still be available, which is the King Cab variant with an optional rear-seat delete. Nissan didn’t offer any further comment when asked about the model.
Expect the update 2020 Nissan Titan to debut within the next few months.