Nissan’s new Qashqai boys with half-electric power, and no diesel

Well, there’s no diesel. That’s arguably the biggest news when it comes to the reveal of the new Nissan Qashqai, the third generation of Nissan’s runaway crossover success story.

Some 50,000 Qashqais have been sold in Ireland since the model was first introduced in 2007, and the vast majority of those were sold with the familiar 1.5-litre dCi turbo-diesel engine. Frugal and with low tax (at least under the pre-WLTP motor tax system) it’s no wonder that it sold so well. Those buyers are now either going to have to return to petrol power, or take a leap into a new hybrid-powered future.

“The new Nissan Qashqai combines the best of Nissan’s pioneering crossover and EV expertise. It allows new and existing Qashqai drivers to experience hybrid and electric driving without range or charging concerns in an unmistakably stylish crossover that continues to deliver everything they would expect from a family car,” said Seamus Morgan, Managing Director of Nissan Ireland.

For now, there won’t be an all-electric Qashqai — Nissan is reserving all-battery power for the incoming Ariya SUV, a car that’s arguably more stylish and more avant-garde inside and out than this new Qashqai.

Indeed, it seems odd to say but the Qashqai, once the most genre-busting car you could buy, has now become conservative. The styling of this third generation version picks up clear cues from the new Juke, and wears the new Nissan corporate ‘face’ but inside and out it’s clearly a careful massaging of what went before.

With a 50,000 strong Irish customer base, and millions more around the world, Nissan is clearly keen not to take too many risks, stylistically.

On the engineering front, you could describe the new Qashqai as risky — it will be the debut European vehicle for both the new CMF-C platform (which will be crucial to so many Nissan, Renault, and Dacia models in the future) and it’s also the first European sighting of Nissan’s e-Power hybrid.

E-Power has been on sale in Japan, in the Note small MPV, for a few years now, and it’s what you might call a ‘more-electric’ hybrid. In the Qashqai, the e-Power’s battery and engine have been upgraded to 140kW electric motor and a 187hp 1.5 litre petrol engine. That petrol engine never drives the wheels directly, but instead is used to constantly top-up the charge of the Qashqai e-Power’s compact battery.

There’s no external plug point, so this is not a plugin-hybrid, but it is technically a range-extender — driving always and only on electric power, but with that power provided by burning petrol. It also borrows the ‘one-pedal’ driving system from the Nissan Leaf, whereby the regenerative braking system does most of the slowing down for you, and you only rarely need to use the actual, physical brakes.

“The e-Power system offers the best transition technology between internal combustion and EV, allowing users to enjoy exhilarating EV driving sensations and impressive efficiency at an affordable price point. We’re really looking forward to customers experiencing the thrill of new Qashqai’s superior electrified driving performance – it’s a perfect expression of Nissan Intelligent Mobility,” said David Moss, Nissan’s Senior Vice President for research and development.

If you don’t fancy e-Power, there will also be conventional petrol power in the shape of the 1.3 litre turbo petrol engine already employed by Nissan, Renault, and Mercedes. It’ll come in 138hp and 156hp forms, and both versions have a 12 volt mild-hybrid system to make them a little more frugal around town.

Nissan has not issued CO2 emissions nor fuel economy figures for either the petrol nor e-Power Qashqai, but says the mild-hybrid system can save as much as 4g/km of CO2 compared to the previous 1.3 petrol turbo. Both an automatic gearbox and four-wheel drive will be optionally available for the higher-powered petrol version.

Inside, Nissan says that visibility has been improved, and there is more cabin space thanks to a 20mm longer wheelbase. The Qashqai’s boot capacity has also grown by 50 litres.

In the centre of the dashboard is a new nine-inch touchscreen infotainment system (Nissan’s engineers reckon that a horizontal screen is less distracting and more natural to use for most people) with a 12.3 inch TFT screen for the instruments.

Higher-spec models will come with a ten-inch heads-up-display projected onto the windscreen. The infotainment system can be paired to your home Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa, while there’s also full smartphone connection through the NissanConnect app.

Go for the Qashqai with the optional automatic gearbox and you can have Nissan’s upgraded ProPilot electronic driver assistance system, which includes a traffic-jam setup that will follow the car in front at low speeds, lane-centring steering, adaptive cruise control, speed limit sing recognition, and can use the data from the sat-nav to adjust the car’s speed for upcoming corners or motorway entrance ramps.

There’s also a ‘flank protection’ system, which uses the parking sensors and cameras to warn if you’re about to take the side off your shiny new Qashqai against a car park bollard, or similar.

Irish sales of the new Qashqai will start in July.