Nissan car company is serviing our Indian army directly and indirectly from a very long time.
Sometimes they have provided legendry vehicles such as Jonga to the military and sometimes their powerful petrol engines are used in army vehicles as Suzuki gypsy was the one to use one of great engine in their fleet.
Surprisingly, we Indian know about only one jonga but there were 2 jongas and one jonga is still in use in uae and Australia in new generation.
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And that particular suv is tough competition for Toyota’s land cruiser, defender, G-wagon
How there are different jonga for Indian market and for rest if the world? To know this it has to know about creation of the jonga and its history first.
History of Jonga
Even if this particular vehicle for Indian army was manufactured in Indian city madhya pradesh, the origin of this legendry vehicle was from Japan few decade ago.
Purpose of nissan jonga
When Japan was facing post war crises after worldwar 2, there were left destroyed roads due to excessive bombing where it was very hard to drive a normal car.
Japanese official had left with few Willey jeeps which were not sufficient for official work and transportation. So officials had come with a thought of asking their domestic car manufacturers to manufactur country made 4×4 jeeps for transportation
This initiative of government was to boost the poor economy of the country and also to provide good vehicles to their military.
After this, Toyota, Mitsubishi and Nissan came forward to build best 4×4 cars of the time.
Toyota came with a legendary off roader land cruiser, which is on pinnacle of all the off road suvs even after 80 years with some generation upgrades.
Mitsubishi manufactured J- Series jeeps and Nissan came up with 4W60 series,
unfortunately nissan didn’t get the contract to deliver their 4W60 and officials chose Toyota’s land cruiser for their use.
Nissan 60 series
Therefore nissan had launched it for civilian use in 1951 with name 4W60 it was built for off road purpose so there was no comfort for normal car users so sale didn’t went well for this car.
In 1955 nissan made some changes and launched it after making it comfortable for daily use by civilians and it was named 4W61 and soon after 3 years nissan launched this suv with more luxury features and named it 4W65.
Nissan 70 series
Even after loosing contract from Japanese government when Nissan launched 4W60 for the civilians as a suv, there was another vehicle which was using same 60 series engine but with big body which later became inspiration for Indian jonga 1 ton.
This is the Jonga which we Indian are aware about.
Nissan Patrol
Yes this is another jonga which is very famous in uae and Australia from 1960s and 1970s
Both places have different reason for the popularity of this suv
Australia
This was the same reason why Indian army wanted to opt for this suv for Indian military operations as well.
In 1962 an Australian geologist Red Sprigg, decided to cross the Australian dangerous desert simpson and it was too difficult to cross that desert on a car.
This desert is covering 3 states of Australian land which is longest parallel desert with 200 km distance. Which no one ever attempted it before.
This desert was crossed by this nissan within 12 days without any breakdown which was amazing experience to explore jonga ability on rough Terrain.
Uae
In 1988 nissan patrol launched with 2 engine options, 1 was 4.8 liter inline 6 cylinder diesel engine and 2nd was 4.2 liter inline 6 cylinder petrol engine.
This petrol engine was knows as TB48DE which was highly tunable engine which was producing only 248 horsepower in stock condition, but it could produce 2000 horsepower after tuning it.
This insane power is enough to dust off the supercars even hyper cars are struggling to compete with a tuned patrol car which makes it most favorite suv in uae
Jonga role in Indian army
After Indo-china war Indian army wanted to have an army vehicle which can transport their soldiers and luggage in tough terrains without any problem. So they were in search for a very capable vehicle for army uses.
After realising the capabilities of nissan jonga they acquired the manufacturing license and started their production in Jabalpur, madhya pradesh.
Jonga was the Indian name for nissan 60 series and 70 series for Jabalpur Ordinance aNd Guncarriage Assembly JONGA.
First 3500 vehicles were imported from Japan but later all the vehicle were manufactured in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh.
In the 1969 this suv and 1 ton was inducted in Indian army.
Where Jonga 1 ton was used to carry troopers and P60(PATROL) was suv integrated by a anti tank gun.
In 1971 Indo-pak war, this patrol suv played a major role in victory over Pakistan regiment which was loaded with 65 tanks, 138 military vehicles, 5 field guns and 3 anti aircraft guns.
On other hand Indian army had Sikh regiment with only 120 troopers and one nissan patrol suv mounted with a m40 anti tank gun.
So the Indian soldiers fought whole night against Pakistan regiment with help of their guns and P60 with anti tank gun till it didn’t get destroyed.
It helped our Indian army to stop the Pakistani invasion till Indian airforce didn’t come till next morning
So this was first major role in securing longewala army post with help of the nissan jonga.
Indian army used this vehicle till 1999 in their military operation and this is how nissan jonga served the Indian army for 30 years by Carring troopers by nissan jonga 1 ton and nissan P60 Patrol by carrying anti tank guns in congested areas.
Nissan jonga 1 ton
Nissan jonga was using same engine which P60 was using it was later available from 1996 for civilians. Civilian version was using 3 liter inline 6 cylinder.
First it was designed to carry 6 people but after some changes in design the seating capacity increased by 2 more passengers.
The 3 liter variant was producing 110 hp power and 250 nm torque with 3 speed manual gearbox.
Nissan patrol in other parts of the world
Global automobile industry welcomed this legendry suv rapidly after Australian geologist Red Sprigg completed his journey in most dangerous desert of Australia
Nissan started launching new generation of patrol in global market in very short time.
After its 4 generation launch in 1986 nissan introduced its most luxurious family friendly version in 1988 which boomed its sale at new level.
This was tough rival for Toyota land cruiser because nisaan launched its bigger 4.2 liter inline 6 engine which was drastically attention grabber for those who want more power and performance in a family suv.
In late 90s nissan came with even more powerful engine with 2 options in diesel and petrol in its 5th generation.
Currently there’s 6th generation of this car which was launched in 2010 and in 2025 there’s face-lift verson of patrol.
UAE and Australia are the biggest market for this legendry suv where it is Always in a competition against Toyota’s land cruiser.
