A fresh report out of Argentina claims the facelifted Nissan Navara will adopt chassis tweaks developed by Mercedes-Benz for its X-Class.

As a reminder, production of the X-Class officially ended earlier in 2020 (though the range is still listed on Mercedes-Benz South Africa's website). The German brand’s bakkie was based on the Navara.

The refreshed D23-generation Navara, meanwhile, is expected to be revealed either towards the end of the year or early in 2021. And, according to autoblog.com.ar, the Japanese bakkie will adopt the “structural reinforcements” Mercedes engineers developed for the X-Class.

The publication claims the updated chassis will build on the foundation of the current H60A setup but gain “many added parts” that were created for the X-Class version of the chassis (H60B).

In addition to adopting the latter’s cross-member design, the chassis is set to gain a supplementary crossbar. The report furthermore mentions the possibility of structural changes allowing Nissan to fit a larger infotainment screen in the cabin.

In April 2019, Nissan South Africa announced it would begin building the Navara bakkie for local and export markets at its Rosslyn plant in Pretoria at some point in 2020. However, thanks to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, this has been pushed back to early 2021.

The fresh R3-billion investment will see the Navara added to the production line alongside the NP300 Hardbody and half-tonne NP200, with more volume likely coming South Africa’s way thanks to Nissan's decision to close its Barcelona plant (which also builds the Navara) in the near future.

Original article from Car