GALLERY: Nissan Navara NP300 sets foot in Europe

Mother trucker 2.0 is here, the twelfth-generation Nissan Navara has just arrived on European terrain and it is to make an official debut at the Frankfurt Motorshow on September 15. That said, we’ve received quite a few details of the incoming Navara albeit in NP300 specs.

Nothing you haven’t seen on the outside, since the compact pick-up was first featured in Thailand previously, but how does it look on European roads? Pretty darn good seeing that a lot of lifestyle design cues and character lines have been incorporated onto Nissan’s best-selling pick-up truck. It retains those bulging wheel arches on the exterior and that’s a good thing.

Edges in the front and rear overhangs are now more shapely, sloping upwards while gone is the squarish shape that we’ve grown to love. The front also sports a more SUV-like grille which Nissan calls the V-motion grille while the projector headlamps which now come with LED lights, although still slightly reminiscent of its predecessor’s stretched polygonal shape, it now curves a bit more and inwards into the fenders.

Towards the back, well, the rear lights might be a slight hit-and-miss when the truck is viewed from the side but in full view from the back the new Navara makes up for it thanks to the visual lines on the redesigned tailgate. Up top, it seems the truck now comes standard with roof rails while the high mount lamp now sits smoothly across the top instead of jutting out like the outgoing truck.

Interesting to note, the twelfth-generation truck from Nissan, in dual cab form will now come with multi-link suspensions as opposed to leaf springs, which we are also expected to receive. The five-link rear suspension might provide for a better ride on both terrains – on-road and off. The new suspension layout has made the vehicle lighter than the outgoing truck by a whole 20 kg.

That said, the two-door king cab variant will continue to have leaf springs albeit a revised one that weighs 7 kg less, and in an overslung design instead which will improve rear wheel approach and departure angles by 3.1% and as an additional benefit, road noise is said to be reduced through this new design.

Inside, the D23’s dashboard has a more upmarket appearance than the D40, but that looks like it will be reserved for markets like Europe and the US only so our verdict as to how classy the centre console may be can only be made after it actually reaches our shores. Front seats should be a lot more comfortable now since the old ones have been chucked away to make way for Nissan’s Nasa-inspired, Zero-gravity seats.

To keep the front nice and cool, both driver and front passenger will have the choice to choose their own temperature settings as it now comes with dual-zone climate control. Rear passengers also receives a refreshing treat with new rear air vents. Newly designed backseats to replace the very vertical ones on the eleventh-generation Nissan Navara, now comes as standard.

Tech-wise, the NP300 Navara will receive an Around View Monitor and Forward Emergency Braking or automatic braking feature making the new Navara a lot like an SUV as it will also include with it Cruise Control, Hill Descent Control and Hill-start assist, a keyless entry system and rearview camera would be additional selling points – we hope we can get some of that too.

The tray of the new Navara is now 1,578 mm long which is 67 mm longer than the outgoing truck, while the two-door king cab’s tray measures in at 1,788 mm in length. Towing capacity has also been upped from 3,000 kg to 3,500 kg this perhaps can also be attributed to the new turbocharged diesel motors that sits beneath the bonnet, which Nissan claims is 24% more efficient.

It will come in two forms, a new single turbo 2.3 litre dCi diesel engine that makes 160 PS or a twin-turbo unit that generates 190 PS. Also, the new Navara is paired to a new seven-speed automatic transmission with an option for a six-speed manual gearbox, while no changes have been made to the four-wheel drive system. Read our test-drive report here.

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