2023 Nissan X-Trail hybrid new car review

Toyota has had this market cornered for years, but a new contender is about to arrive in Australia that could challenge its spot at the top.

Nissan’s dream of becoming a nightmare for Toyota begins with the all-new X-Trail hybrid. Due to arrive early next year, this five-seat medium-size made-in-Japan SUV has some big advantages over the hugely popular RAV4.

Toyota is Australia’s undisputed hybrid powerhouse. It pioneered the introduction of petrol-electric propulsion more than 20 years ago. Now the fuel-efficient technology is a key ingredient of the RAV4’s recipe for success; about 75 per cent of sales of the nation’s favourite SUV are hybrids.

Nissan is preparing to launch its new X-Trail SUV.

Having given Toyota a massive headstart in hybrid tech development, Nissan believes it’s come up with a smarter and smoother system. They’re calling it e-Power and it doesn’t work like anyone else’s hybrid tech, Toyota’s included.

In a Nissan e-Power hybrid 100 per cent of the power to turn the wheels is electric. All other hybrid systems on the market turn the wheels with a mixture of internal combustion engine and electric motor power.

Nissan says e-Power is more like an EV to drive than other makers’ hybrids.

It still has a petrol-burning engine but in Nissan’s e-Power system it’s connected to a generator, not the wheels. The generator’s job is to produce electricity for its wheel-turning motor. Or motors.

For the first time it’ll come with hybrid power.

The X-Trail hybrid headed for Australia has two electric motors, one for each axle, making it a four-wheel drive. So the marketing boffins have named it e-Power with e-4orce. Nissan’s name for its new hybrid tech may be clumsy but the way it drives is anything but.

It’s quiet, quick and smoothly seductive. And that’s just the hybrid set-up. The X-Trail e-Power with e-4orce is also flexibly roomy, neatly designed, well equipped (especially with safety tech), handles curves much more deftly than the average medium-size SUV and is very pleasant both to drive and to live with.

We sampled the X-Trail e-Power with e-4orce at its international launch in Slovenia, on motorways, arterial roads, through towns and on gravel-surfaced tracks through forest where signs warned that bears and wolves might be lurking.

It’s quiet, quick and smoothly seductive.

While it doesn’t drive like a Toyota hybrid, neither does the Nissan drive exactly like a similarly sized EV. The main difference is that e-Power doesn’t deliver the instant kick that an EV does when the accelerator is pressed.

This is because e-Power’s hi-tech turbo 1.5-litre three-cylinder engine must be spinning at high revs to generate maximum electrical power. This takes a little time, so there’s a lag between flooring the pedal and the power arriving.

It’s most noticeable accelerating from rest. The effect is less at other times. Climbing hills, for example, the X-Trail e-Power approaches the effortless and responsive feel of an EV.

The Nissan’s electric motors drive its wheels via a single gear, so there’s no gear-shifting, another EV similarity.

The new X-Trail brings big cabin improvements.

At low speeds the X-Trail e-Power often runs on only electric power from the small battery pack under one of the front seats. The battery pack captures electricity generated when the vehicle slows. And it contributes more than one-third of the hybrid system’s 157kW maximum output.

In low-speed urban driving the X-Trail e-Power is very, very quiet. Even when its engine does fire up, it’s not felt and barely heard. At medium speeds there’s a faint hum from the engine compartment. Only when working very hard is it really obvious that the Nissan has an engine.

And it’s reasonably efficient, too. The X-Trail e-Power with e-4orce consumes just 6.1L/100km in Australia’s official consumption test. The RAV4 claims 4.7L/100km.

The hybrid will cost $4200 more than the petrol equivalent.

The Nissan’s most obvious shortcoming is cost. The e-Power with e-4orce hybrid system will be offered only in the two top Ti and Ti-L equipment grades. Their prices are $54,190 and $57,190 respectively, $4200 more than their petrol-powered equivalents and also more expensive than their obvious competitors in the RAV4 range. Toyota typically charges a $2500 premium for hybrid versions.

But Nissan does have the option of adding less costly e-Power models to its Australian X-Trail line-up if the market shows an interest in, or preference for, their kind of hybrid tech. Single-motor versions of the SUV are already being sold in European markets.

Nissan will launch an e-Power version of its all-new Qashqai soon after the X-Trail hybrid. This smaller SUV will be front-drive and use the same engine and front electric motor as its bigger brother.

Toyota’s dominance in petrol-electric tech is about to be challenged.

NISSAN X-TRAIL Ti E-POWER

PRICE $54,190

SAFETY Auto emergency braking with cyclist, pedestrian and junction detection, lane-keep and blind-spot assist, traffic-sign recognition, adaptive cruise control

ENGINE/MOTOR 1.5-litre 3-cyl turbo petrol and two electric motors, 157kW/525Nm

THIRST 6.1L/100km

0-100KM/H 7.0 secs