Last year, Nissan’s hot Nismo performance arm announced it wanted to double the number of vehicles it has on sale while increasing annual deliveries by 50 per cent in two years.
At the time, Nissan said it may not do so by itself, with the Japanese brand saying it’ll “consider collaborations with external partners to expand its Nismo car lineup business”.
With a relatively short list of existing partners globally, one name seemed to stand out as a potential candidate: Australia’s Premcar.
Born out of the demise of Ford Performance Vehicles (FPV), Premcar has made a name for itself as the engineering powerhouse behind the Nissan Navara and Patrol Warrior products.
After first launching the Navara N-Trek Warrior in 2019 – which subsequently became the Pro-4X Warrior – Premcar followed it up with the Patrol Warrior in 2023, both made using the same formula of making the base vehicle more rugged for off-road driving.
While Premcar’s Warrior vehicles aren’t available on Nissan’s own website in Australia, the relationship between the two brands has strengthened in recent years.
Last year, Nissan’s South African division announced a joint collaboration with Premcar to introduce the Navara Pro-4X Warrior in the market, resulting in Premcar SA – a joint venture with AIH – modifying the ute in the factory where it’s built.
In August, Nissan’s luxury brand Infiniti revealed a series of concepts, including the QX80 Terrain Spec, based on the Patrol’s premium twin-under-the-skin. Developed by Premcar, it showed what an upmarket version of the new Y63 Patrol Warrior could look like.
On top of this, Nissan has hailed Premcar’s local testing and tuning of the new D27 Navara’s suspension as crucial to the ute’s potential success, with the program becoming the first time the Australian firm has worked on a non-Warrior production product.
A new-generation Navara Warrior is also on the way, and images of the concept show more than a little touch of Nismo’s iconic red exterior highlights.
Speaking to Torquecafe, Nissan Oceania managing director Andrew Humberstone said Premcar’s potential tie-up with Nismo is currently a “work in progress”.
Premcar’s a natural partner to do anything with. They would always be a preferred partner, given our relationship with them,” Humberstone told Torquecafe.
“Definitely a work in progress on Nismo stuff, potentially on accessory ranges first, then obviously on the Z, but [we’re] definitely looking where those options are going forward.
“They’re nice to have and they’re very highly valued when it comes to brand messaging. So it’s nice to bolt those in, but it’s not the foundation of the [Nismo growth] strategy.”
It’s worth noting that Nissan last year filed trademark applications in Australia for the Z Warrior, X-Trail Warrior, Qashqai Warrior, and Pathfinder Warrior titles, though the latter is unlikely to amount to anything given the SUV is on the chopping block locally.
Premcar has previously declined to comment when asked by Torquecafe about producing Nismo-branded products.
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