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Slow sales and no hybrid replacements in the wings have prompted the demise of the Nissan Pathfinder large family SUV and city-sized Juke in Australia.
Nissan has removed the slow-selling Pathfinder and Juke SUVs from the Australian market, citing a lack of "critical mass" and the right powertrain technology in current and planned future models.
The axing of these two models is immediate, and Drive understands there is no stock available in dealers.
"In terms of cleansing product that is no longer fit for market, and there is not enough critical mass, we don't need Juke, we don't need Pathfinder, as great a product as it is," Nissan Australia boss Andrew Humberstone told Drive.
"Pathfinder had a good year as a runout year, but there is no replacement to the Pathfinder with new technology that serves this market.
"We've got a bridging strategy, and we know what we are doing; we know where the scale is. And then it's like: so what are we doing in terms of leveraging on Patrol and Navara going forward?"
The axing of the Pathfinder and Juke leaves Nissan with six models in Australia: the soon-to-be-replaced Patrol, new Mitsubishi-based Navara four-wheel-drive ute, Z sports cars, X-Trail petrol/hybrid and Ariya electric mid-size SUVs, and Qashqai small SUV.
The Pathfinder name debuted in Australia in 1986 as an off-road-focused four-wheel-drive, but switched to become a car-derived family SUV with three rows of seats more than a decade ago.
The latest model, competing against the Toyota Kluger and Hyundai Santa Fe, arrived as a new model in 2022, but lacked a hybrid powertrain technology – referenced by Humberstone as "new technology" – instead using a naturally-aspirated petrol V6 for power.
It suffered from slow sales, just 732 reported as sold last year, and has been in a recent runout with slashed prices.
The Juke – a small SUV with turbocharged petrol power and quirky styling – has also suffered from slow sales in Australia, with only 734 deliveries reported in 2025.
A new-generation Juke is in development for European markets, but it is expected to be electric.
Nissan Australia is instead focusing on hybrid power in Australia, as well as its four-wheel drive offerings.
Alongside a new Navara and Patrol, Nissan will add a two-wheel-drive hybrid variant of the X-Trail medium SUV, while the Qashqai small SUV is now hybrid only.
"I reckon 75 per cent of all of the volume is going to sit around hybrid," Humberstone told Drive.
"Especially given your geography, and your infrastructure, that is influencing our strategy. Because you need to have an EV product, but it’s probably not silly to have an ICE product, certainly.
"With products like Patrol and Navara, we’re bringing in new products that are more efficient in terms of NVES than their predecessor."
Nissan has been under financial pressure in recent months, after lagging sales and profits globally, and a proposed merger with Honda that fell through about 12 months ago.
Sam Purcell has been writing about cars, four-wheel driving and camping since 2013, and obsessed with anything that goes brum-brum longer than he can remember. Sam joined the team at CarAdvice/Drive as the off-road Editor in 2018, after cutting his teeth at Unsealed 4X4 and Pat Callinan’s 4X4 Adventures. Off-road writer of the Year, Winner - Sam Purcell
