However, the combustion engine doesn’t actually drive the wheels, but rather generates electricity. It’s then sent through an inverter to the battery pack and/or the electric motor, depending on the scenario. By having electrically driven wheels, the Nissan Qashqai e-Power provides instant acceleration response in the same vein as a purely electric vehicle.

The Japanese automaker claims its technology offers the best of both worlds since it delivers EV-like performance without having to charge the battery. In addition, you won’t be experiencing the lag associated with hybrids until the electric motor kicks in. Nissan has had this setup for about five years since it was originally introduced in Japan for the Note hatchback back in 2017.

The Qashqai e-Power’s gasoline engine benefits from variable compression and is teamed up with an electric motor. Nissan mentions the e-motor has approximately the same output and size as the one installed in an EV, like the Leaf. The two offer a combined output of 188 hp and 330 Nm (243 lb-ft) of torque in a crossover offered strictly with a front-wheel-drive layout.

Early estimations made by Nissan put combined fuel consumption at 5.3 liters / 100 km with corresponding CO2 emissions of 119 g/km. Research conducted by the company shows the typical crossover owner in Europe drives 70% of the time in the city and its suburbs. For this reason, the Qashqai’s e-Power setup has been tailored to the Old Continent without the hassle of having to “fill up” the battery pack.

The model’s launch comes only about a week after the smaller Juke gained a traditional hybrid derivative with an electric mode.

Source: Nissan

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The 2023 Juke Hybrid combines a 1.6-liter gasoline engine with an electric motor. The former produces 94 horsepower (69 kilowatts) and 148 Newton-meters (109 pound-feet) of torque while the latter is good for 49 hp (36 kW) and 205 Nm (151 lb-ft). Nissan’s alliance partner Renault supplied not only the inverter, but also the 15-kW starter/generator and the water-cooled battery pack with a capacity of 1.2 kWh.

The French automaker with the diamond logo also lent Nissan its “highly innovative” gearbox featuring dog clutches to replace traditional synchronizer rings. The multi-modal transmission has four ICE and two EV gears while lacking a clutch for less friction. The gearbox is smart enough to control battery regeneration and make the optimal shift points to help the hybrid setup deliver an extra 25% of power compared to the gasoline-only Juke.

According to Nissan’s own estimations, the typical owner will be driving the Juke Hybrid around town on electric power for up to 80% of the time. The crossover can reach speeds as high as 34 mph (55 km/h) without sipping any gasoline. In usual operation, the hybrid system always prioritizes the EV mode for maximum efficiency.

Mirroring the purely electric Leaf hatchback, the crossover offers one-pedal operation for greater comfort and better energy recuperation during braking. Discreet styling changes have been made to boost aero, including a reshaped rear spoiler. The fresh two-tone 17-inch and 19-inch wheels set it apart from the ICE-only Juke, with the bigger set derived from the alloys first seen on the Ariya electric crossover. The mildly updated corporate badge has also been installed.

As for the bad news, the Juke Hybrid loses 68 liters of cargo volume compared to its conventionally powered sibling. The trunk capacity behind the rear seats is down to 354 liters after adding the battery pack. For those in need of more space, folding the rear bench increases volume to 1,237 liters, which Nissan claims is still a best-in-class figure. Also worth pointing out rear legroom has remained unchanged, at 553 mm.

Going on sale later this year in Europe, the Nissan Juke Hybrid should cost roughly the same as the Renault Captur E-Tech Hybrid.

Source: Nissan

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Perhaps the first thing you will notice is the discreetly updated corporate badge on the wheels, front grille, and tailgate. Speaking of which, the alloys in 16- and 17-inch sizes have been freshened up with a black look, prompting Nissan to say these now exude a “premium feel.” The 2022 Leaf also receives a couple of paint jobs borrowed from the Qashqai and Ariya. Universal Blue and Magnetic Blue joint a color palette including six monotone shades and five two-tone hues.

Minor styling changes to the body have been made, but nothing to write home about. You can tell the second-generation Leaf is getting a bit long in the tooth, especially on the inside where the dashboard is starting to look outdated. You do get some modern safety tech, namely Nissan’s ProPILOT that will automatically stop, start, and maintain a safe distance from the car in front of you.

The 2022 Leaf continues to offer one-pedal operation for better comfort and you also have support for Android Auto and Apple CarPlay integration. Your smartphone can also remotely operate the vehicle’s climate control system by using the NissanConnect app.

As before, Nissan is selling the Leaf in Europe with two battery options and a maximum range of up to 385 kilometers (239 miles) in the WLTP cycle. To date, the electric hatchback has generated nearly 600,000 sales since the first-gen model debuted back in 2010 before the current model arrived in late 2017.

Source: Nissan

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It’s going to invest $500 million into the Canton assembly plant to manufacture two electric vehicles from 2025. One will carry the Nissan badge while the other will be a more upscale Infiniti version. Doing so will not only preserve almost 2,000 jobs, but the employees are going to receive additional training to be ready for the EV duo’s arrival in roughly three years’ time.

Judging by the teasers released, both will be approximately the same car, but with the Infiniti likely more luxurious to fit its premium brand image. Surprisingly, the two EVs don’t seem to be SUVs, but rather sleek sedans or more practical five-door liftbacks. As expected from the new era of zero-emission cars, the two will have LED light bars at both the front and rear.

The coupe-like sloping roofline should give the Nissan and Infiniti EVs an attractive side profile. The fact they’re not crossovers is a bit puzzling since just about everyone knows more and more people are ditching sedans. Details about the two products due to be built in Minnesota have not been disclosed, which isn’t a surprise since they won’t be launched until the middle of the decade.

The new arrivals are part of a greater EV agenda Nissan is working on, with 15 purely electric cars scheduled to arrive by 2030. An additional eight will feature a hybrid powertrain and are also programmed to hit the streets in the next eight years. By the end of the decade, the company aims to have 40% of its annual sales in the US represented by vehicles without a combustion engine.

Meanwhile, the Canton factory where the two cars will be made is celebrating its 19^th anniversary this year. At this plant, Nissan puts together the Altima, Frontier, Titan, and Titan XD. It has assembled almost five million vehicles and currently employs approximately 5,000 people. The facility has an annual production capacity of 410,000 vehicles.

Source: Nissan

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Hot on the heels of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi’s announcement about an ambitious electric roadmap with 35 models coming by 2030, one of the future EVs is already being previewed. On sale since 1982, the Micra supermini will not live to see a new generation with combustion engines. Instead, the small hatchback will morph into a purely electric car by switching to the alliance’s CMF-BEV platform.

It will share the underpinnings with the Renault 5 reboot and we already know the battery will have enough juice for more than 250 miles (400 kilometers) of range. Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi touts 33% lower costs compared to the Renault Zoe, along with a reduction in power consumption of over 10%. Worth mentioning is the fact Renault has been tasked to build the new EV in France where it’s already making the Townstar light commercial van for Nissan.

It’s unclear when Nissan’s new EV will debut, but we do know the CMF-BEV architecture will be introduced in 2024. It might arrive first on the resurrected Renault 5 before the Micra’s replacement hits the market. Being a supermini, the current gasoline-fueled hatch is a subcompact model, but Nissan keeps referring to its replacement as a compact car. It likely means the new EV tailored to Europe will be larger.

Engineered by Renault, the zero-emission Nissan model appears to be teased in production guise already judging by the normal size of the mirrors. It has circular LED daytime running lights bisected by three-point rectangular clusters serving as the main headlights. It looks as though the corporate badge is illuminated and the vehicle might have a clamshell hood, although we’ll wait for further teasers to shed more design details.

CMF-BEV is just one of the five platforms Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi will use to launch a plethora of EVs until the end of the decade. To make that happen, the trio plans to invest €23 billion ($25.7 billion) until 2027. Approximately 90% of the new electric models will ride on the five architectures to spread out costs and boost development.

Source: Nissan

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About 90% of these new arrivals will ride on five common EV architectures and will be sold in the vast majority of countries around the world. The most affordable ones will sit on the CMF-AEV platform, which is already in use for the Dacia Spring – Europe’s cheapest electric car on sale today.

Even smaller EVs are planned on KEI-EV underpinnings developed for kei cars sold in Japan. The platform will be inaugurated in the coming months by Mitsubishi and Nissan with their “ultra-compact” models for the local market.

Up next is the LCV-EV platform, which as its name implies, it’s tailored to light commercial vehicles such as the already available Nissan Town Star and the Renault Kangoo.

The Renault Megane E-Tech Electric and Nissan Ariya share the CMF-EV architecture, which will be used by 15 models by 2030. The alliance estimates it will be able to build as many as 1.5 million cars each year on this platform.

Then there’s CMF-BEV, set to arrive in 2024 as “the most competitive compact electric platform in the world.” Cars using this hardware will offer more than 400 kilometers (250 miles) of range combined with superior aerodynamics and performance. At the same time, Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi mentions costs will come down by a third and the necessary power consumption will be reduced by more than 10% compared to the Renault Zoe.

CMF-BEV will underpin the revival of the Renault 5 as well as a new zero-emissions Nissan model to replace the Micra supermini. There will also be Alpine-branded vehicles on this platform, which the alliance says will serve as a foundation for an annual car production of 250,000 units.

Aside from rolling out new EVs, the three are working with battery suppliers to halve costs by 2026, rising to 65% by 2028. By the end of the decade, a total battery production capacity of 220 GWh is expected. Interestingly, mass production of solid-state batteries is scheduled to commence by the middle of 2028.

Source: Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi

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It is believed more than 30 vehicles are slated to arrive by the end of the decade. The alliance is apparently working on five different platforms that will underpin this new wave of new EVs. One of them is already in use as the CMF-EV has underpinned the Renault Megane E-Tech Electric and the Nissan Ariya crossovers pictured here. In addition, another architecture already underpins the Dacia Spring for low-cost electric city cars.

Reuters goes on to mention that a separate platform will be used for kei cars in Japan where Mitsubishi will begin to sell later this year a production version of the K-EV concept X Style. Also coming in 2022 will be a mechanically related Nissan IMk. Light commercial vehicles are getting their own dedicated electric platform, with the fifth and final one arriving by 2025 for smaller cars.

New EVs will include the revival of the Renault 4 and 5, along with the next-generation Nissan Micra supermini, which will all likely sit on that fifth common platform. To drive down manufacturing costs and speed up development, the three automakers are expected to share the batteries packs as well as many of the other components. In addition, there are plans to boost battery production by 2030 to 220 GWh in Japan, China, France, and the United Kingdom.

Rumored to go by the name of “Alliance to 2030,” it is believed the plan will be officially presented this Thursday, January 27.

Source: Reuters (subscription required) via Automotive News Europe

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The Japanese automaker claims it took a lot of work to create the electric Bluebird as the engineers decided to optimize weight distribution by installing the battery cells between the engine bay and the trunk. In addition, the boxy hatchback has an uprated suspension to cope with the added weight commanded by the battery pack.

This restomodded “Bluebird” benefits from updated brakes, steering, and heating, which are all now electrically powered. Other miscellaneous tweaks include an illuminated Nissan badge and a glorious 1980s colorful livery. It retains the original fuel flap where the charging port has now been integrated to juice up the battery at a maximum rate of 6.6 kW. Interestingly, the fuel gauge actually works, but it obviously shows the battery’s state of charge rather than how much gasoline you have left.

The Bluebird is a one-off project and hasn’t been homologated for public roads. Nissan does estimate it hits 62 mph (100 km/h) in about 15 seconds, which is nearly double the time it takes the Leaf to complete the same task. With the battery fully charged, the unique EV should cover roughly 130 miles (209 kilometers) or considerably less than the 40-kWh Leaf with its WLTP rating of 168 miles (270 km). Side note – the more expensive version fitted with the larger 62-kWh pack can cover 239 miles (385 kilometers) based on the same test cycle.

As you have probably heard by now, the Leaf as we know it will cease to exist in 2025 when it will be replaced by an electric crossover. The latter was officially teased at the end of last month when Nissan unveiled the Chill-Out concept.

Source: Nissan

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The Ariya Single Seater Concept takes design cues from the crossover and applies them to a sharp race car with zero emissions with exposed rear wheels and no roof. The illuminated “V” shape at the front fascia is a nod to Nissan’s road-going vehicles and there is carbon fiber just about everywhere you look to shave off weight as much as possible.

The Japanese automaker goes as far as to say the Ariya electric race car “was shaped by the air itself” to emphasize the design was created with maximum aerodynamic efficiency in mind, therefore making the concept as sleek as possible. The exposed suspension arms at the front accentuate the raw nature of the racer, while the HANS-like safety device protecting the driver is a nod to Formula 1 cars.

Sadly, Nissan isn’t providing any technical specifications for its wildly designed zero-emissions race car. That said, we do know the range-topping Ariya electric SUV has a pair of electric motors, a battery pack with a usable capacity of 87 kWh (90 kWh nominal), and an all-wheel-drive system. It delivers a combined output of 390 horsepower (290 kilowatts) and 600 Newton-meters (443 pound-feet) of torque.

The electric crossover needs only 5.1 seconds to reach 62 mph (100 km/h) from a standstill and it will keep on going until it hits 124 mph (200 km/h). It goes without saying the Ariya Single Seater Concept would be significantly faster since its weight would be much lower than the hefty 2,200 kilograms (4,850 pounds) of the dual-motor Ariya.

If we were to wager, Nissan’s engineer would likely be able to shave off at least a quarter of the crossover’s weight for the electric race car, resulting in some serious performance on a circuit. However, the concept was conceived only to showcase the platform’s potential, with no intentions of actually building the speed machine.

Source: Nissan

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To make it all happen, two trillion yen or nearly $18 billion will be invested in the next five years and some of the money will be put to good use by developing solid-state batteries. A pilot program will be up and running as early as 2024 at home in Yokohama, ahead of 2028 when the first production EV with this tech is programmed to go on sale.

Solid-state batteries will cut charging time by 33% and help Nissan bring down the costs with batteries to $75 per kWh by 2028 and to $65 per kWh in the next decade, with the ultimate goal being to make EVs just as affordable to produce as combustion cars. Meanwhile, advancements in lithium-ion batteries will enable Nissan to get rid of cobalt from packs and reduce costs with manufacturing by 65% by 2028.

Aside from improving battery tech, Nissan is also investing heavily in production to support the rollout of these EVs. For this reason, the plan is to boost global output to 52 GWh by 2026 and to 130 GWh by 2030 with the help of its partners around the world.

Also part of the announcement made today is the reveal of four fully electric concepts. The one with the highest chances of reaching production is the Chill-Out as it likely previews the second-generation Leaf due in 2025. The Japanese marque has already disclosed its intentions to turn the compact hatchback into a crossover, so we’re probably looking at it.

Another concept that has some chances of hitting the assembly line in the coming years is a small truck molded after the Surf-Out featured here in a single bed configuration. Nissan says it has dual motors for all-wheel drive to give the compact pickup off-road capabilities, although likely with smaller wheels than those of the concept truck.

The cutesy box on wheels is called Hang-Out and could be the company’s way of indirectly telling us the Cube will make a return. After all, Nissan needs an answer to the Kia Soul EV and a production version of this concept would fit that bill. The brick-shaped EV rides on a bespoke electric car platform as with the other two and features sliding doors both front and rear.

We wouldn’t get our hopes up too high as far as seeing the Max-Out evolving into a production model, but the concept certainly does look interesting. It’s an all-electric sports car with a folding roof and two seats. It boasts an electric motor at the front and another one at the rear to enable AWD, while the battery is mounted in the middle to lower the center of gravity for sharper handling.

Source: Nissan

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