Nissan plans to load up U.S. stores with Titans

TOKYO -- Bouyed by dealer enthusiasm, Nissan wants to stock up U.S. retailers as heavily as possible with the long-awaited redesigned Titan pickup for the end-of-year market launch.

That means that Nissan's Canadian dealers will have to wait a little longer to receive the full-size pickup.

"There will be a two- to three-month delay in introducing the truck to Canada," Nissan North America Chairman Jose Munoz told Automotive News on the sidelines of the Tokyo Motor Show. It is an issue of ramping up factory production as quickly as possible, Munoz says. "Our dealers are telling us to produce as much as you can."

The new Titan is the first redesign since the truck appeared in 2003. Nissan's U.S. dealers have been pressing the automaker for years to give them an updated truck. The Titan will be produced at Nissan's plant in Canton, Miss.

Nissan is approaching the full-size segment with a new zeal, expanding the number of configurations to include different engines and bodies. The first version will contain a Cummins 5.0-liter, turbocharged, V-8 diesel engine, even though Munoz predicts the majority of Titans will go out the door with a gasoline engine.

Nissan believes the redesign will substantially increase its sales in the segment. Last year, 12,527 Titans were sold, compared with 118,493 sales of the Toyota Tundra.

Munoz says that because the outgoing Titan is limited in body and engine options, it competed for just 35 percent of full-size pickup segment sales. He says the Titan's new configurations will reach 85 percent of the segment.