Nissan fans cheered when the automaker officially confirmed last fall that the Xterra would make a return for 2028. The original Xterra built a devoted following as a capable off-road SUV, and speculation about the new model suggested it would stay true to those roots while incorporating a contemporary hybrid drivetrain. At the New York auto show, we sat down with Ponz Pandikuthira — senior vice president and chief product and planning officer for Nissan Americas — who offered some clearer details on what buyers can expect.
Initial speculation pointed toward the revived Xterra arriving as a full EV, manufactured alongside other electric models at Nissan's Canton, Mississippi facility. Those EV plans have since been abandoned. Later reports suggested the Xterra and its Mississippi-built body-on-frame siblings would all feature hybrid powertrains — but it turns out there will be a non-hybrid choice as well.
"There will be a pure ICE," said Pandikuthira, clarifying that a non-electrified powertrain option is planned. He also specified the engine configuration. "If we do ICE only, it will be V-6, it won't be a four-cylinder turbo," he said. Nissan currently uses a naturally aspirated 3.8-liter V-6 in the Frontier pickup, and our best guess is that the Xterra will employ a refined version of that same engine.
"Then we can build a hybrid off that," Pandikuthira continued. "What that hybrid execution looks like, when it debuts, how many months after the ICE version? Still a work in progress at this point."
Pandikuthira also gave a glimpse of the Xterra's styling direction. "I was in Japan two weeks ago and I saw the car in the first foam full mock-up, it literally takes your breath away," he told us. "Super imposing, it's got a lot of those very tough, in-your-face design cues."
Unlike competitors that have "gotten softer for aero" to extract better fuel efficiency, he said Nissan "found other ways to get the efficiency in the car." The result, he suggested, will be an aggressive, trail-ready aesthetic. "When you're standing there, it's going to have a presence."
When the topic of a manual transmission came up for the Xterra or other Nissan trucks and SUVs, Pandikuthira didn't leave much room for hope. "For the big trucks, no," he said plainly. "The fun element of a big truck comes out of dynamic performance, suspension tuning, the tires that you use, the way the vehicle steers, and how that powertrain is calibrated."
He also pointed to the practical issue of center console space: "the fact that you use up so much real estate in the center that people expect to use for storage." We've enjoyed manual-transmission off-roaders like our long-term Ford Bronco Badlands Sasquatch, but Pandikuthira's reasoning makes sense. It appears Nissan prefers to reserve its manual-gearbox efforts for performance-oriented cars — like the Z NISMO, which adds a stick shift for the 2027 model year.