Sometimes a path splits in two, and this also applies to one Nissan Pathfinder.
Automotive News The name will reportedly be used for two different vehicles, with Nissan continuing to offer a Pathfinder based on a car-like unibody platform, alongside a recently reported large body-on-frame SUV that also bears the name.
The existing fifth-generation Pathfinder will reportedly receive updates in 2028 or 2029 aimed at improving ride and handling, although cosmetic updates are also expected.
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It will reportedly continue to offer combustion engines only. There is no evidence of a hybrid powertrain like the one in the previous generation Pathfinder.
To avoid confusion, the reborn body-on-frame Pathfinder – rumored to be available as early as mid-2029 – could carry the Pathfinder Pro-4X nameplate.
The Pathfinder Pro-4X will reportedly join a range of new Nissan and Infiniti models based on a new ladder frame platform.
One of the vehicles on this platform will be a reborn Xterra, which previously existed as a smaller, more off-road focused body-on-frame version of the last Pathfinder. Other models include a new Frontier Ute and a new Infiniti QX60, with Nissan reportedly aiming for 70 percent parts parity across the quintet.
This more robust Pathfinder Pro-4X will reportedly be priced above the updated unibody Pathfinder and will launch with gasoline power before a hybrid powertrain becomes available later in its lifecycle.
It is expected to have a boxier design to suit its superior off-road capabilities and is also likely to offer greater towing capacity. As a platform mate to a Nissan Ute, the new Pathfinder Pro-4X will be conceptually similar to the first and third generations of the nameplate.
Nissan wouldn’t be the first car brand to offer similarly sized unibody and body-on-frame SUVs at the same time. Toyota offers the unibody Kluger and body-on-frame Prado in Australia, while in the US there’s the unibody Highlander and Grand Highlander, as well as the ladder-frame 4Runner and LandCruiser.
A source told Automotive News that more than half of buyers could compare the two Nissan Pathfinders against each other.
Nissan is reportedly flexible on how long it will offer the Unibody Pathfinder.
Automotive News Pathfinder sales in the U.S. reportedly peaked in 2025, exceeding 100,000 annual units for the first time, up 26 percent year over year.
The peak achieved by the last body-on-frame Pathfinder generation was 76,156 units in 2005.
The Pathfinder’s sales performance in 2025 surpassed the Toyota Highlander, as the Kluger is known in the United States, which achieved 56,208 sales.
The situation was completely different in Australia, where the Pathfinder was stagnating in the sales charts. Nissan delivered just 732 examples here last year, compared to 8,098 Toyota Klugers and 2,364 Hyundai Palisades.
The current Pathfinder was unveiled in February 2021, but didn’t hit local showrooms until late 2022.
Nissan describes a “significant evolution” of the platform compared to the previous model, which went into production in 2012. The base D platform is even older, first entering production in 2000.
A facelifted model was unveiled in the US in late 2025, but has yet to be confirmed for Australia, where Nissan has previously confirmed the Pathfinder’s future is uncertain due to unfavorable exchange rates.
Previously, in 2023, Nissan introduced a much more modern Pathfinder for China, with significantly changed exterior design and a turbocharged four-cylinder gasoline engine.
The Pathfinder is among several Nissans that use an updated version of an old platform, with the Z sports car’s FM underpinnings dating back to 2001, for example.
MORE: Explore the Nissan Pathfinder showroom
