Nissan delaying next-gen Frontier fuels mid-size EV pickup speculation
After pulling the Titan full-size pickup from the US market, Nissan is banking on a segment it’s better positioned in with mid-size trucks. Amid Nissan’s next-gen Frontier delay, speculation is rising that it could reemerge as a mid-size EV pickup.
According to a supplier memo viewed by Automotive News, Nissan is extending production of the current generation Frontier by two years.
Nissan will now continue building the Frontier at its Canton, Miss facility until the 2029 model year. The previous generation lasted 17 years before receiving its first major refresh in 2021.
Although Nissan didn’t offer an explanation for the extension, one supplier familiar with the matter told the publication that the refresh would have come just as it was preparing its Canton facility to build new Nissan and Infiniti EVs.
The source added that Nissan doesn’t want “a major model launch during the time that they’re starting up” the EV transition.
In fact, the Frontier may not receive a redesign at all, according to the source.
Is Nissan working on a mid-size EV pickup?
Instead of the planned next-gen pickup initially slated for the 2027 model year, the source said the Frontier could reemerge as an all-electric mid-size pickup.
Nissan just reached the one million mark for EV sales last month, 12 years after launching the iconic LEAF.
Despite its early success, the LEAF has lost momentum, with nearly every automaker releasing more advanced electric models with longer range, advanced technology, and improved charging.
The Japanese automaker did release its second all-electric mass-market vehicle, the 2023 Nissan Ariya, which arrived in the US in late 2022 (and is already outselling the LEAF).
Meanwhile, Nissan is transforming its Canton facility to build new electric models with a $500M investment revealed last February.
According to Nissan’s production schedule (via Automotive News), the first models will be a pair of electric sedans starting in 2026. A couple of electric crossovers are due in the following two years.
David Johnson, Nissan’s North American senior vice president, told the publication, “Canton will be North America’s electrification hub for the next five to six years.” He added, “That’s where we’re going to bring in the new platforms, the new technology.”
Regarding a mid-size EVpickup, Nissan advisory board chairman Tyler Slade said earlier this year:
The Frontier Hardbody has been a part of Nissan’s brand for decades. It’s logical to bring an electric version.
Slade added that dealers are looking for mid-size electric pickups similar to the Frontier. He added that electric trucks offer advantages over gas-powered ones, explaining:
Trucks typically get the worst gas mileage. So, making them electric will reduce operating costs.
Nissan declines to comment despite the growing speculation. However, delaying the pickup “gives the market time to mature enough to allow an electric Frontier to hit the ground running with high enough volume to make money,” according to AutoForecast Solutions Vice President Sam Fiorani.
Electrek’s Take
An electric pickup could help Nissan reclaim its status as a leader (or at least remain competitive) in the new electric era. Nissan has sold 34,139 Frontier models through June this year compared to 4,234 LEAF and 5,195 Ariya EVs.
There is a growing need for smaller EV pickups, and Nissan could fill the void with an electric Frontier.
Meanwhile, Ford, GM, and Tesla will battle it out in the full-size segment with the F-150 Lightning, Chevy Silverado EV, and Tesla Cybertruck.
By the time the Frontier is due for a refresh, an electric model is the only option that makes sense. The market is already transitioning quicker than most have predicted, and the trend looks to continue in that direction.
How do you guys feel about a mid-size Nissan EV pickup? Would you buy an electric Frontier? Let us know in the comments.
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Tesla (TSLA) is no longer confidently stating growth in its automotive business for 2025, and it has delayed updating its guidance until the next quarter after a disappointing performance in the first three months of the year.
2024 was Tesla’s first year in a decade where its vehicle deliveries went down year-over-year.
Just a few months ago, in January, Tesla was confident in predicting that it would return to growth in 2025:
“With the advancements in vehicle autonomy and the introduction of new products, we expect the vehicle business to return to growth in 2025.”
Today, Tesla released its Q1 2025 financial results, confirming that it had its worst quarter in years to start 2025.
The automaker is now clearly not as confident about returning to growth in its automotive business this year.
Tesla updated its “outlook” section this quarter to highlight the potential impact of trade policies and now no longer discusses automotive growth in isolation. Instead, it bundled automotive and energy businesses together and said that it will “revisit its 2025 guidance” next quarter:
It is difficult to measure the impacts of shifting global trade policy on the automotive and energy supply chains, our cost structure and demand for durable goods and related services. While we are making prudent investments that will set up both our vehicle and energy businesses for growth, the rate of growth this year will depend on a variety of factors, including the rate of acceleration of our autonomy efforts, production ramp at our factories and the broader macroeconomic environment. We will revisit our 2025 guidance in our Q2 update.
Tesla’s vehicle deliveries are already down about 50,000 units so far this year compared to last year.
It will be challenging to catch up in the current macroeconomic situation.
Tesla again guided the start of production of “new affordable models” in the first half of 2025, which could help the automaker to deliver more cars.
However, as we have previously reported, these new vehicles are expected to be stripped-down Model Y and Model 3, which will cannibalize Tesla’s current sales and limit its growth to those products.
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US DC fast charging is becoming more reliable, and charging stations are getting bigger and busier, according to a new Q1 2025 report from the EV data analysts at Paren.
DC fast charging station reliability is on the rise
Paren’s latest US Reliability Index – “Can I successfully charge at this charger?” – increased from 81.2 points in Q4 2024 to 82.6 points in Q1 2025, a notable jump of 1.7%. According to Bill Ferro, CTO at Paren, “This continues a quarterly trend across the US non-Tesla fast charging infrastructure, which suggests that the ongoing efforts to replace or sunset older hardware are having a positive impact on station uptime. In addition, newer entrants into the field are bringing time-tested hardware along with enhanced driver experiences.”
Utah, Alaska, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Nevada were the top-ranked states for DC fast charging reliability in Q1 2025.
Growth slows, but charging stations are getting larger
New DC fast charging ports grew to 55,580 at the end of Q1 2025, up 3,667 from last quarter, with total stations reaching 10,839, an increase of 794. This is fewer new additions compared to the surge seen at the end of 2024, reflecting typical seasonal slowdowns due to winter weather. However, there’s a bright spot: the average number of ports per station among non-Tesla networks rose to 3.9, compared to 2.7 year-over-year. The Tesla Supercharger network now averages 13 ports per station.
Utilization rates reflect the urban-rural divide
Average utilization – that’s the minutes of a charging session as a percentage of time a station is open each day – dropped slightly from 16.6% in Q4 2024 to 16.2% in Q1 2025, following typical holiday travel patterns. But overall, charging use is climbing, especially in dense urban areas with significant rideshare and apartment communities that rely heavily on public chargers.
Early days for NACS transition
The Combined Charging System (CCS) remains dominant, with 59% of new ports, and the shift toward Tesla’s NACS (J3400) standard is still in its very early stages. Only 104 non-Tesla NACS ports were added this quarter at non-Tesla networks, so drivers of new non-Tesla vehicles need to use their adapters if they want to use Superchargers.
Fixed pricing prevails
Charging operators primarily use fixed pricing (80%), with Time of Use (TOU) pricing making up 16%. Pay-by-time options are rare, used only 4.2% of the time.
California is the only major state where TOU pricing surpasses fixed pricing, while many states, such as Oklahoma, Vermont, and Arkansas, almost exclusively utilize fixed pricing models.
As for the most expensive places to fast charge your EV? The top four metropolitan statistical areas are all in California, with average rates at $0.60 or $0.61 per kWh.
Rural and low-income areas at risk
The Trump administration’s cancellation of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program poses a significant threat to rural and low-income communities. Loren McDonald, chief analyst at Paren, cautioned, “Our data is a harbinger of less expansion in rural and lower-income markets as CPOs will increasingly focus on urban markets, seeing high utilization, often north of 30%, versus markets with less than 5% utilization.”
‘Charging 2.0’ – a new industry phase
McDonald summed up the report by marking 2024 as a pivotal year, stating, “2024 was a year of mixed news in the US DC fast charging industry, but it will be remembered as a pivotal turn to a new era we are calling ‘Charging 2.0’. Charge-point operators and new players in the industry are increasingly focused on creating a great customer experience, improving reliability of chargers, and reaching profitability – a shift from chasing the availability of incentives, racing to get chargers in the ground, and then crossing your fingers that utilization will grow over time.”
Read more: Trump just canceled the federal NEVI EV charger program
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Tesla (TSLA) released its financial results and shareholders’ letter for the first quarter (Q1) and full-year 2025 after market close today.
We are updating this post with all the details from the financial results, shareholders’ letter, and the conference call later tonight. Refresh for the latest information.
Tesla Q1 2025 earnings expectations
As we reported in our Tesla Q1 2025 earnings preview yesterday, the Wall Street consensus for this quarter was $21.345 billion in revenue and earnings of $0.41 per share.
The expectations had been significantly downgraded over the last month, as analysts were surprised by Tesla’s announcement of much lower deliveries than expected in the first quarter.
Did Tesla meet them?`
Tesla Q1 2025 financial results
After the market closed today, Tesla released its financial results for the first quarter and confirmed that it missed expectations with earnings of $0.27 per share (non-GAAP), and it also missed revenue expectations with $19.335 billion during the last quarter.
This is a big miss for Tesla despite the company admitting to selling a lot more regulatory credits this quarter.
At $595 million in credit sales, Tesla would have lost money without it in Q1 2025:
In short, Tesla is on the verge of being a money-losing company.
We will be posting our follow-up posts here about the earnings and conference call to expand on the most important points (refresh the page to see the most recent posts):
Here’s Tesla’s Q1 2025 shareholder presentation in full:
Here’s Tesla’s conference call for the Q1 2025 results:
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