Why Did Nissan Discontinue The Titan Pickup Truck?

Introduced in 2003 as a 2004 model, the Nissan Titan is a full-size pickup truck that competes against some of the most successful vehicles on sale today. Full-size rivals for the Titan include the Ford F-150, the Chevrolet Silverado 1500, the Toyota Tundra, and the Ram 1500 -– all goliaths in the industry and in their particular class. But, it would appear that the competition has won that battle, as the Nissan Titan will be no more after 2024. According to Nissan, the truck is being discontinued after 20 years in production and the Canton, Mississippi plant that currently makes the Titan will focus more on building EVs. But why get rid of the truck? Doesn't America love full-size pickups, especially ones built domestically?

Unfortunately, America's affinity for full-size pickups was not enough to keep the Titan off the chopping block. Up against its popular rivals, the Titan just couldn't keep up. Class leaders among full-size pickup trucks offer bonkers off-road variants, hybrid technology, and wildly complicated tailgates. The Titan failed to compete against these goliaths of the industry, and as a result, sales never got quite high enough to meet Nissan's standards.

As is typically the case with discontinued vehicles from any manufacturer, poor sales likely played a big part in the removal of the Titan from Nissan's lineup. No official press release from Nissan confirms this reasoning, but taking a look at the Titan's sales numbers gives us a pretty clear picture. In 2023, Nissan sold 19,189 Titans in the United States. That's a significant increase over 2022 sales (15,063 units sold) but nowhere close to the Toyota Tundra, which sold 125,185 units in 2023.

The Ram 1500 sold nearly four times that many units (444,926 in 2023), the F-150 sold over 750,000 units, and General Motors sold a combined 840,000 units of the GMC Sierra and Chevrolet Silverado. In a field of sales that strong, it's tough to justify carrying on, especially when you consider that Nissan's smaller truck, the Frontier, sold 58,135 units in 2023, so shifting focus to smaller trucks or an EV offering, as has been rumored, may be a better strategy. It also likely does make sense for the company to reallocate manufacturing resources to more electric options, which is what Nissan announced when the Titan was discontinued.

On its way out the door, it's worth noting that the Titan is one of the cheapest cars you can currently buy with a V8. The 5.6-liter V8 puts out a respectable 400 horsepower and 413 lb-ft of torque –- strong enough for most truck buyers even if it isn't up for battle against modern competition.