The Navara comes home

There’s good news for our local car industry: the 2021 Nissan Navara will be built in South Africa. Nissan’s plant in Rosslyn, Gauteng, is teaming up with Japan Motors in Accra, Ghana, to build the Nissan Navara for the African continent. Kabelo Robotho, country director of Nissan Sub-Saharan Africa, says the 2021 Navara that will be built on local soil is specifically adapted to African conditions. The Navara will apparently have a stronger focus on off-road driving and carrying capacity. The latter in particular is important to Nissan and their goal is to be a leader in the one-tonne market. Off-roading, however, won’t play second fiddle and the Navara gets electronics that control wheel spin with the brakes (called Active Brake Limited Slip) in order to mimic a mechanically limited slip differential when you switch to four-wheel drive. The Navara also gets software that activates the brakes independently when the computer notices your caravan fishtailing behind the Navara, bringing your tow combination under control. Note that the new Navara is not a brandnew vehicle, but a facelift of the thirdgeneration Navara, which is assembled in Spain, Mexico, Argentina and China since 2014. There should therefore be no changes to the engine options. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic that crippled many manufacturers, Nissan invested R3 billion in Rosslyn’s plant in preparation for our very own Navara. Robotho motivates this expence by noting that Africa is an important market for Nissan and that the demand for bakkies on our continent is growing dramatically. Robotho concluded by saying that Nissan is committed to providing safer vehicles to the people of Africa. Nissan was criticised after its NP300 Hardbody scored poorly in a Global NCAP crash test.