Is Nissan Really Bringing Back The Xterra?

The car community has been speculating about the return of the Xterra ever since Nissan applied for a trademark on the name in late 2024 — but this has unfortunately led to a lot of false information. Nissan's trademark application was sent to the United States Patent and Trademark Office on December 23, 2024 for use on motor vehicles through August 31, 2027, a heavy indication that the Xterra might be coming back in the next couple of years. The last time Nissan sold the Xterra in the United States was in 2015. 

The offroad-capable SUV was discontinued after poor sales performance, making it difficult for Nissan to justify upgrading it to meet new safety mandates and stay competitive with modern SUVs. With the brand facing an uncertain future, the Xterra is one of a few discontinued Nissans that could be revived. Nissan fans have been calling on the automaker to bring back the Xterra in recent years, believing it would fit right in with newer offroad SUVs with a design upgrade. 

With the trademark application giving some people hope that Nissan is planning the Xterra's comeback, there is an abundance of videos floating around showcasing what appears to be concept art of a 2025 or 2026 Nissan Xterra. These videos all contain fake images that are the work of increasingly convincing AI photo generators. Along with AI art depicting a rugged SUV, these videos have descriptions that claim Nissan announced the vehicle and its specs — this is not accurate information. Nissan has made no statement regarding the return of the Xterra as of this writing.

Fortunately, there are a few ways to find out if what you're looking at is genuine. If you want to find out if a video of a future car is real or not, expand on the details below the video by clicking "more" and you'll find a section about how the content was made. If it says "synthetic content" or "digitally generated," you're looking at an AI-generated image of a car. There are a few other telltale signs that images might be AI-generated. The AI-produced images of the Xterra all have similar features that give them away, the most noticeable being the shiny surface of the vehicle. 

In many of these images, you can see an immense around of gloss on the surface of the SUV despite it being in a shaded location. The excessive shadows and reflections on the car's surface also don't really match up to the environment around it. A lot of AI images will also have textures and features that are slightly off — many Xterra images have ground that is made of a peculiar blend of textures. Another giveaway is the lettering. If you look closely at many of these images, you can see that the Nissan logo and other text has indistinguishable letters that blend together into total gibberish. For now, the Nissan Xterra has no confirmed design or release date. Off-road enthusiasts will have to wait a bit longer to see what the trademark filing was all about.