Concept Renault Niagara will debut a year earlier than projected in 2026. Image: Renault
Renault has announced an earlier-than-expected production start of the Niagara bakkie following a sizeable investment into its Santa Isabel Plant in Argentina.
On Wednesday (18 September), the automaker announced that assembly of the Niagara will start in 2026 and not 2027 as reported last year, with the aim of building 65 000 units annually.
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What’s more, around 70% of the total offset will be for export markets with Brazil set to be the most important and on the South American continent as well.
Part of a two-tier product strategy that will see a rebadged Nissan version being produced at the same facility, motor1.com Brazil reports that the investment, worth R $ 1.9-billion or R6.1-billion, could see production increase to 100 000 units as per Renault CEO for Latin America, Luis Pedrucci.
“It will be a product that, for now, will only be manufactured in Argentina. My goal is to export it to other continents. I would like to reach an annual volume of 100 000 units,” a translated extract of Pedrucci’s comments at the investment announcement said.
Revealed in concept guise last year, the Niagara will replace the Duster-based Oroch as Renault’s flagship half-ton in South America, and no longer above it to form a two-model segment assault.
Instead, the foundation of the Niagara will, as mentioned, result in a badge engineered Nissan model as per the Mobilise product roll-out announced earlier this year.
This involves the assembly of four bakkies at Santa Isabel; the Alaskan that will again be spun-off of the Navara known as the Frontier in South America, and the Niagara that will underpin the unnamed Nissan version.
While the Niagara replaces the Oroch that had been penned up for South Africa, the Nissan variant will indirectly replace the discontinued NP200 that had been sold only in South Africa as a rebadged, locally assembled take on the first generation Dacia/Renault Logan Pick-Up.
Seemingly also set to enter production in 2026, the Nissan example could debut as the second model currently being investigated for assembly alongside the Navara at the Rosslyn Plant outside Pretoria following the NP200’s withdrawal earlier this year.
A move that came as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the decision resulted in the retrenchment of 400 of Rosslyn’s 1 600 employees working on the NP200 line.
“With the situation of Russia and the decision we took, we were unable [to introduce the replacement],” Nissan’s Chairperson for the Africa, Middle East, India, Europe and Oceania region, Guillaume Cartier, said at a roundtable discussion on the sidelines of the new Patrol’s launch in Abu Dhabi two weeks ago.
Despite not divulging any details of whether the model would indeed be the half-ton, Cartier stated, “We are looking into a second model because we need a second model to sustain the operation in South Africa. What I can say is that we are looking at [a second model]”.
For the moment, no details about either Renault or Nissan model are known, however, with the date of the reveal now confirmed as happening a year earlier, expect hints, spy images and teasers to potentially emerge with the onset of 2025.
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