Nissan Is Done With Piano Black Plastic and Chrome. Consumers Are Sick of Fingerprints

With the 2027 Nissan Rogue Hybrid arriving the Japanese automaker is kicking off its turnaround plan. With it comes design and philosophy changes.

In an exclusive interview with The Drive, Senior Vice President and Chief Planning Officer for Nissan North America, Ponz Pandikuthira said the automaker is done with piano black trim and chrome is out too.

Addressing the lack of shiny piano-black trim in the new 2027 Rogue Hybrid Pandikuthira said, “Definitely consumer driven. It looks very premium when it’s perfectly shiny and new. But then all it takes is any real world use and then the fingerprints and stuff like that, you know, just obsessively cleaning it or you just give up and it just looks terrible after some time.”

Pandikuthira is right. For years automakers have turned to piano black plastic trim inside vehicles to make them look more upscale than they are, but cheap reality hits minutes into ownership and real life.

The new Rogue lacks a chrome grille or even chrome trim elements, which was a purposeful decision, according to Pandikuthira. “Chrome on the outside, it made a big resurgence when we started started coating plastic with chrome, and it just got a bit over the top, where it missed that sophistication element.
And so there’s lots of things that we can do with dark chrome, and subtle paint treatments. We’re actually looking at even wrap style treatments that we do out of the production facility in the future that give much more subtle design cues than overt in your face, big chrome grill, big chrome elements on the wheel. 
So I think the underlying design message, there would be subtlety over in your face,” Pandikuthira said.

Not that anyone expected chrome to make an appearance on the new Xterra, but hearing that shiny piano black trim is on its way out, at least at Nissan, is a relief. It’s a start.

Got a tip? Send us a line at tips@thedrive.com