Nissan will discontinue sales of its full-size Titan pickup in Canada, a struggling truck market this year.
Despite the fact that pickup sales have been a source of optimism in the U.S., Nissan’s move is not surprising, given the Titan’s anemic sales in Canada.
Canadian sales of the Titan last year cratered to 2,807, down nearly half from a year ago. Meanwhile, Nissan sold only 800 Titans in the first half of this year, accounting for just 0.5 percent market share in the segment.
“Based on our market objectives for Canada specifically, we have decided to focus our resources on current and future core models in our crossover and sedan portfolios,” Nissan spokesman Dan Passe told Automotive News on Monday.
The pullback comes as financially stressed Nissan attempts a business pivot in the U.S. and orchestrates a product offensive that involves updating about 70 percent of its portfolio by mid-2021.
The automaker said it has no plans to discontinue sales of the Titan in the U.S.
“It is an important part of Nissan’s U.S. product lineup,” Passe said.
But dropping Canada from the North American business plan raises some question about the U.S. market.
The Titan lingers in last place among full-size pickups. For the first six months of this year, the Titan mustered a mere 1.2 percent share of the U.S. full-size pickup segment, with sales of 12,196. That was a decline of 32 percent from a year ago.
This year, the Titan received a $230 million freshen that included a more powerful V-8 engine, an updated design and a suite of safety technologies.
Last year, Nissan dropped the Cummins diesel-engine Titan XD version of the truck in the U.S. and jettisoned certain other Titan configurations, including its single-cab models.