All-New yet Virtual Suzuki Equator Truck Returns to U.S. to Fight the Mid-Size Lot

Let me explain a bit at large, please. So, today there is a Ford Equator mid-size CUV produced in China by the JMC-Ford joint venture as a three-row model positioned above the Ford Ranger-based Everest in the local range. Meanwhile, in Vietnam, it is called and manufactured as the Ford Territory or Equator Sport because it is a smaller, two-row export version. But not long ago, the Equator nameplate was rebadged and used by Suzuki in North America.

Solely produced between 2008 and 2012 as a two-door and four-door mid-size pickup truck counterpart to the well-known Nissan Frontier, it was based on the Nissan Navara and even assembled by Nissan. Powered by a base 2.5-liter inline for with 152 hp or a 4.0-liter V6 with 261 ponies with four-seat Extended Cab or five-seat Crew Cab body styles, the Suzuki Equator garnered some critical attention and was even considered above the Dodge Ram 1500, Ford F-150, Hummer H3, Kia Borrego, and Toyota Sequoia trucks back in the day.

Alas, it had very poor sales and was quickly shunned out of the Canadian market in 2010 before also deserting the demanding U.S. car market in 2012. Today it has very few ardent fans and is probably only remembered across the vast expanse of the imaginative realm of virtual automotive artists. Dimas Ramadhan, the virtual automotive artist behind the Digimods DESIGN channel on YouTube, also dwells there and recently has taken up the task of revealing a new Equator pickup truck – in CGI.

This pixel master rarely misses an opportunity to express his quirky truck visions, as seen from the latest ideas which include the Bronco-based second mid-size Ford pickup truck, a new Toyota Hilux, the revival of the Jeep Comanche, or the unofficial introduction of an all-new Mazda BT-60. Now it also does not get any quirkier than thinking about Suzuki returning to automotive sales in America for a potential mid-size pickup truck to battle the best-selling Tacoma, Ranger, Frontier, Colorado, and Canyon lot.

And it does not seem to have a lot of visual appeal, either – it’s just the current Suzuki design language splashed on top of a mid-size pickup truck body. Plus, there would be a conundrum about who builds it as their rebadged version – Nissan with its fresh Frontier or Toyota (which holds a stake in Suzuki) with its older yet wiser (and best-selling) Tacoma? Yeah, that would be a clear hard pass from me, on this CGI occasion, sorry.