The Nissan Ariya is a crossover SUV but it won’t revolutionise the car market like the Nissan Qashqai did. It’s also an electric crossover SUV, but it won’t revolutionise the car market like the Nissan Leaf did.
Still, history could well end up viewing the Ariya as a car that truly pushed the electric car market forward: it’s good looking, spacious, has a beautiful interior, a 300-mile plus range and costs…
…yeah that’s the thing. Expected to start at around £38,000, it has a price tag to match the premium vibe of its interior, and that puts it squarely against the Tesla Model Y which comes to the UK in 2022. It’s intriguing that Nissan has gone this way with its first all-electric SUV, as opposed to making it smaller and going down the value route.
“The Nissan Ariya is a truly beautiful and remarkable car,” said Nissan COO Ashwani Gupta at the car’s launch event. “It enables you to go further, easier and in comfort. The Ariya is designed to impress, and to express what Nissan strives for – making our customers’ lives better.”
So there you go. Nissan has gone “premium”.
Still, it’s an exceptional looking thing, right? About the size of an X-Trail but with a sloping ‘coupe’ roof line, it might even make a potential Jaguar i-Pace buyer think twice. The interior is of far higher quality than anything Nissan has done before – Infiniti included, arguably. A twin-screen setup dominates the cabin and aside from a volume dial and an on/off engine switch it's free from buttons. Instead, the matte panel that stretches across the dash is touch sensitive with illuminated haptic sensors built into it.
Two landscape orientation screens are 12.3-inches apiece and can have information passed between them with a swipe motion, and latest generation voice activation means most of the functions can be accessed by talking to the car. There is of course an associated smartphone app, allowing users to check the battery or charging status of the car, or pre-heat the cabin, and it’s compatible with Amazon Alexa.
Most impressive is its ‘always on’ 4G capability, though, which means it can be updated over the air at any point – including chassis, battery and drivetrain settings; the infotainment will be continually improved based on customer usage data and feedback, and in theory it’s possible that you could make your Ariya more ‘sporty’ by requesting an update.
The boot is 466 litres as standard, although four-wheel drive models lose boot space on account of an additional rear electric motor, dropping to 408 litres. The relatively long wheelbase means rear legroom is generous, although it remains to be seen what headroom is like given that roofline.
The Ariya comes as standard with a variety of drivetrain options, underpinned by a front-wheel drive version with a 65kWh battery pack and a single front-mounted 215bhp electric motor. That one hits 63mph in 7.5 seconds. A more powerful version with 239bhp is linked to a 90kWh battery pack, giving the Ariya its biggest possible range – the headline 310-mile claimed figure.
Buyers can also specify four-wheel drive models, a setup clumsily labelled ‘e-4ORCE’, which adds another electric motor to the rear axle.
The base e-4ORCE model has the 65kWh battery pack with a 275bhp output, good for a 211-mile claimed range and a 0-62mph time of 5.9 seconds. The 90kWh version boosts the range to 285 miles. And finally the flagship version is the 90kWh Performance, which develops 389bhp and 600Nm, taking the 62mph benchmark to 5.1 seconds. It has a 249-mile claimed range.
Charging is bang up to date, obviously, with all models getting 7kW home wall box capacity at least (good for an 8-hour full charge) and the 90kWh models compatible with 22kW three-phase charging. Nissan also says that some models will have 130kW DC charging capability.
The Ariya will most likely appear in Nissan showrooms at the back end of 2021.
Keyword: Nissan Ariya is so much more than an 'electric Qashqai'