New Nissan Armada Won't Have V8 Power

The next-generationNissan Armadawill not be powered by the beloved 5.6-liter naturally aspirated V8, also used in the Nissan Titan.

Nissan's global head of product strategy confirmed the news toDriveat the Japan Mobility Show. The next-generation Armada will instead be powered by a twin-turbocharged V6, but Nissan isn't bothered about losing fans of its old-school luxury SUV.

"I think the customers, the moment they drive a twin-turbo V6, they discover a new universe. The capability, the performance, the acceleration, the power delivery - the customer will smile, I'm sure of it. It will outshine the V8 in all those metrics," said Ivan Espinosa. "We built on the strengths of what we have. Off-road performance, of course we'll keep it."

Although it may upset fans who believe there is no replacement for displacement, there are multiple examples out there that prove otherwise. Toyota dropped its V8 and replaced it with a 3.4-liter twin-turbocharged V6, for example. Heck, we live in a world where a 1.6-liter turbocharged tripleproduces 300 horsepower reliably.

For the record, we've driven both the Lexus LX and Land Cruiser 300 with the smaller engine, and they are better in every single way. Naturally, Nissan has to scale down to meet emissions regulations, but owners will also benefit from increased efficiency. The V8 Lexus LX managed 13 mpg in the city and 15 mpg combined, while the new model with the twin-turbo V6 achieves 17 mpg in the city and 19 mpg combined. Still not great, but there's only so much you can do with a giant box.

TheNissan Titan has been axed, so keeping the V8 around for only one model doesn't make sense.