Qashqai SUV revealed with lots of edges

Friday, 19 February 2021

Nissan's edgier, techier and greener Qashqai is here.

Hot on the heels of its new platform-mate, the Mitsubishi Outlander, Nissan has revealed the new third generation of the Qashqai,

The design has been updated with plenty of creases and edges, angular boomerang-shaped headlights and a few cues pulled from the forthcoming all-electric Ariya SUV.

Nissan’s V-Motion grille sits proudly up front, surrounded by those cool new headlights, coming in matrix-LED variety, and triangular corner vents touching the base of the headlights.

Nissan’s Qashqai has been updated with some edgy new looks. Careful, you might cut yourself.

The profile features sculpted wheel arches with a vertical line extending from the base of the taillights to the just behind the rear wheel.

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Not wanting to drag out a pun, but that’s one sharp looking SUV.

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The interior now features some cutting-edge tech.

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I can’t think of any edge-related puns for this image but there’s nearly 500 litres of storage before you drop the seats, as shown here.

Nissan will fill those arches with alloys up to 20 inches in diameter, if you’d like, while there are 16 different exterior colours on offer. Five are two-tones, pairing a black or grey roof with an assortment of body colours.

Nissan is offering its e-Power hybrid powertrain this time around, which should cut emissions nicely.

Inside is a new 9.0-inch touchscreen with Nissan’s latest and greatest infotainment system on-board, offering wireless Apple CarPlay and wired Android Auto, sat-nav and support for the Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant voice assistants.

Behind the wheel (which has been slimmed down nicely and is now heated) is a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster along with a 10.8-inch head-up display (on higher trims only).

The ProPilot driver assistance system can automatically slow the car for turns using sat-nav data.

Nissan has also developed an app for your smartphone called NissanConnect, which allows users to remotely control the horn, lights, central locking and other parameters. It also adds live traffic for the sat-nav system, over-the-air updates and a Wi-Fi hotspot for up to seven devices.

White ambient lighting is new, as is a fresh ten-speaker Bose sound system. USB-A and USB-C ports are dotted around the interior for front and rear passengers and there’s an additional 15-watt wireless charging pad.

The seats are made from premium Nappa leather, which Nissan says takes 25 days to produce, and 60 minutes to embroider with the fronts coming with a new design that should reduce fatigue on longer journeys.

Dimensionally, the Qashqai is 35mm longer in overall length, 10mm taller, 32mm wider and 20mm longer in wheelbase than its predecessor for total measurements of 4425mm long, 1635mm high and 1838mm wide, with a 2666mm wheelbase.

This means there is an extra 28mm of rear knee room and 15mm more headroom for front and rear passengers. The boot has also been enlarged by 50 litres, now up to 490L with the seats up.

Two engine options have been confirmed overseas, one of which is brand new to the Qashqai. That’s the e-Power model, which uses a similar system to the e-Power Note. Unlike a conventional hybrid, which uses an electric motor to assist a petrol engine, e-Power works by employing a large electric motor to do the heavy lifting, while a small combustion engine acts as a generator for the battery.

In the Qashqai, the electric motor produces 140kW/300Nm, only available in front-wheel drive. It also gets the ‘e-Pedal’ from the current Leaf, which allows for one-pedal driving.

The other option is a 1.3-litre turbocharged four-cylinder, aided by a 12-volt mild hybrid system that can inject an extra 6Nm under acceleration and switch the engine off when coasting under 18kmh to save fuel.

Buyers can have this engine in two tunes: a base 103kW/240Nm version, and a high-spec variant developing 116kW and 260-270Nm.

The torque difference is due to transmission choice – the 103kW version is FWD with a manual transmission only, while the 116kW version can be had in the same front-wheel drive manual, front-wheel drive CVT automatic and all-wheel drive CVT configurations, with the automatic models offering more torque.

Tech has been improved too, with an updated ProPilot system on board to offer adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist and lane-following assist (on automatic models).

The system can also recognise traffic signs to automatically alter the vehicle’s speed and use satellite navigation data to change the car’s speed for corners and off-ramps.

We’re yet to hear about any New Zealand-specific information but, given the Qashqai remains a good seller for Nissan, there’s a good chance of it arriving here. And, with the new emissions rules coming into effect in the next few years, we’ll probably get the E-Power one too.