It’s been rumored for some time now that Nissan’s tweener SUV, the Rogue Sport would not see another generation, and now a new Automotive News report (subscription required) of a Nissan North America memo to dealers suggests 2023 will be the last model year for the SUV. Not surprisingly since the North American model continues on the ‘second generation’ design while the third generation already launched in other markets in 2021.

The Rogue Sport came to North America in the 2017 model year as part of a lineup shift that saw the discontinuation of the Nissan Juke and its replacement by the Nissan Kicks in 2018. The Rogue Sport, known as the Qashqai in other markets had been replaced for model year 2021 in other markets and shares a platform with the North American market Nissan Rogue (known in other markets as the X-Trail), also redesigned for 2021.

Nissan’s Rogue is known outside North America as the X-Trail

Unlike our market, other markets like UK and Europe received the redesigned Qashqai for 2021, but the X-Trail (nee Rogue) continues to carry over from the previous generation. These markets also continue to sell the Juke, as the Kicks was never introduced. Even stranger, the Australian market sells not only the Juke and Qashqai but both the outgoing X-Trail and the new X-Trail.

Putting it all together, Nissan has four two-row SUVs, from smallest to largest: Juke, Kicks, Qashqai (Rogue Sport), X-Trail (Rogue) and Murano. Some markets get the Juke, Qashqai and potentially the X-Trail, others get Kicks, Rogue and Murano. In the former markets with Juke and Qashqai, the X-Trail/Rogue has been sold in a three-row configuration. Ultimately it comes down to market positioning and as hot as SUVs are, too many smaller SUVs in a finite price band simply isn’t efficient from a sales and marketing perspective. Nissan’s competitors Toyota and Honda have been forced to make similar difficult decisions with the C-HR reportedly being cancelled now that the Corolla Cross has been introduced and the North American HR-V moving to a Civic-based platform even as the international market HR-V continues on a new-generation Fit/Jazz platform.

Left: the international Honda HR-V, still based on the Fit/Jazz platform; Right: the North American HR-V, sold elsewhere as the ZR-V

The Kicks will likely get larger and pricier in its next redesign, ultimately straddling the market position of the current Kicks and the outgoing Rogue Sport.  Though it is unfortunate that the North American market will miss out on the sportier, stylish new Qashqai as our Rogue Sport.