Nissan Australia celebrates five years of Premcar Warrior program

Nissan Australia’s Warrior by Premcar program is marking more than five years of delivering remanufactured vehicles for Australian customers.

While the Warrior program – including the Navara SL Warrior, the Navara PRO-4X Warrior and the Patrol Warrior – speak for themselves, the partnership has also delivered some incredible statistics as Australia’s local manufacturing industry continues to boom.

Launched in late 2019 with the Nissan Navara N-Trek Warrior, the Warrior by Premcar program has already collaborated on 12,755 vehicles across its model lines, each tailored to suit Australia’s off-road enthusiasts.

Premcar’s Epping, Victoria, facility has fitted some 63,775 wheels and tyres, along with 51,020 springs, 51,020 shock absorbers and 12,755 bash plates – all selected to increase the breadth of capability, both on the road and off it, of Nissan’s Navara and Patrol range.

The success of the Warrior program has seen Premcar – one of the country’s most successful engineering houses – continually expand its operations, with a new production facility in Epping dedicated to Warrior vehicles, opened in 2023.

The new facility doubled Premcar’s manufacturing footprint, which is now some 13,000 square metres across two facilities. Even as it grows, Premcar remains truly people-powered, with more than 200 staff with 15 different cultural backgrounds working across its manufacturing lines and in its engineering teams.

And the success flows outward from Epping, too. Some 80% of the content added to Warrior vehicles is sourced from Australian suppliers, many of whom have been working with Premcar for almost three decades. 

“Premcar was founded in 1996 at the height of Australia’s local manufacturing era, yet now, some 29 years later, the company is bigger than it has ever been,” Premcar chief executive Bernie Quinn says.

“We owe so much of that success to Nissan, and to its customers, all of whom value true local expertise when it comes to tailoring vehicles to Australia’s unique conditions.

“We always say that we are about increasing a vehicle’s breadth of capability, and the same is true of our business. Premcar is proud to boast some of the brightest minds in the automotive space, with our engineers and manufacturing experts having worked for just about every OEM in a host of countries.

“And now they apply that wealth of knowledge to our remanufactured vehicles right here in Australia, delivering OEM-level quality to the Warrior’s design, development, and validation processes.”

ABOUT PREMCAR AND WARRIOR

With a long and successful history at the forefront of vehicle re-engineering in Australia, Premcar is the go-to partner for Nissan Australia when it comes to building vehicles with enhanced capability and toughness, and that are designed for Australian conditions. 

The testing of a Warrior is done entirely in Australia, utilising the unique terrain and conditions of the Australian landscape to prove-out the package. The vehicles are homologated and approved through the Premcar secondary-stage manufacturing process, with strict processes and attention to detail enabling Premcar to match Nissan warranty on all Warrior enhancements.

All Warrior-branded vehicles are put through a comprehensive test regime, with a range of performance and durability validations for Australian conditions. Development includes on- and off-road testing in remote areas of Australia, including Mount Disappointment, Big Desert, Arkaroola and the areas surrounding Lake Eyre.

Big Desert is Premcar’s major testing ground of choice, with the harsh environment emblematic of some of the toughest conditions in Australia, while the diversity of the surfaces, undulations and tracks packs in all of what this country has to offer.