Nissan drops NP300 tag from name of Navara pick-up

Date: Friday, October 28, 2016 | Author: James Dallas

Nissan has dropped the NP300 prefix to the name of its 12^th generation Navara pick-up in European markets following pressure from customers and dealers.

The manufacturer discarded the NP300 tag with the introduction of Euro6 standard models in September.

The NP abbreviation, which was brought in with the launch of the new Navara in January 2016, stood for Nissan pick-up and brought the Navara in line with the brand’s naming policy that also includes NV, for Nissan van, and NT, for Nissan truck.

But Paolo D’Ettore, Nissan’s LCV chief marketing manager, told What Van? customer feedback had shown that the Navara brand name was too strong to dilute with an epithet or to discard altogether.

The manufacturer’s original plan had been to move from naming the pick-up NP300 Navara to just NP300.

Jose Gabarro Rossell, section manager for LCV Test Management, said dealers had objected to changing the name of the best-selling model in Nissan’s LCV line-up for fear of confusing customers who had built up trust in the Navara name.

He said the NP300 moniker may be adopted in Japan but had been removed from European models, which Nissan builds in Barcelona.

D’Ettore claimed Nissan increased UK sales of the Navara by 73% to 7,200 from January to September this year – up from 4,200 in the same period in 2015.

The Euro6 Navara features SCR technology requiring a 17-litre Ad-blue tank accessed via a cap on the opposite side of the vehicle to the fuel cap. Nissan said payload capacities have not been impacted and remain at above one-tonne across the line-up.

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