New Nissan Qashqai e-Power 2025 review: impressive efficiency in an unusual way
The Nissan Qashqai e-Power's innovative powertrain works well, offering a smooth EV-like driving experience
Verdict
The Qashqai e-Power is a unique, and slightly unusual, proposition in the ever-expanding sea of hybrid family SUVs. Around town, its clever powertrain delivers a genuinely EV-like drive, while the newly enhanced version brings noticeable improvements in refinement and fuel economy on the motorway. The cherry on top is that the updated set-up will be cheaper to run, in terms of trips to the pump and maintenance, which buyers will appreciate in the long term.
The Nissan Qashqai received much more aggressive styling and new Google-backed tech as part of its substantial mid-lift facelift last year, but there were no changes under the bonnet at the time. Presumably because the brand’s engineers were still toiling away on the next evolution of its e-Power hybrid system, which is finally ready to be rolled out later this month.
The unique set-up is designed to deliver as close to an EV-like driving experience as possible – without the driver having to worry about range or charging – by only using an electric motor to drive the front wheels. The petrol engine acts solely as a generator to charge a 1.8kWh lithium-ion battery, which in turn powers the e-motor.
For the third iteration of its e-Power set-up, Nissan has designed an all-new five-in-one electric drive unit that shares core components with the latest Leaf EV. By putting everything into one unit, not only does it mean the system is now more efficient, but it also emits less noise and vibrations, to help improve refinement.
Used - available now
2018 Nissan
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31,203 milesManualPetrol1.3L
Cash £13,197
2022 Nissan
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23,763 milesManualPetrol1.3L
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2022 Nissan
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34,977 milesAutomaticPetrol1.3L
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2022 Nissan
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Cash £17,149There’s also a new, dedicated 1.5-litre three-cylinder petrol engine with a larger turbocharger so the motor doesn’t have to rev as high on the motorway, further boosting refinement and efficiency simultaneously, while the company’s ‘STARC combustion concept’ supposedly improves thermal efficiency by up to 42 per cent. As well as reducing fuel consumption, Nissan has managed to increase the service intervals from 9,000 to 12,000 miles, which will allow buyers to save money on maintenance.
The result of all this is that the Qashqai e-Power can now average up to 62mpg, compared with roughly 54mpg before. It also consumes less fuel while cruising on the motorway which, in theory, should allow drivers to cover up to 745 miles on a single tank of petrol. Meanwhile CO2 emissions have dropped from 117g/km to 102g/km, and cabin noise has fallen by 5.6dB.
Nissan has also tweaked the hybrid system’s power output, because customers apparently wanted to feel more of a difference when switching into Sport mode. Now, in Normal mode, the e-motor produces 188bhp and 311Nm of torque, but switching to Sport ups it to 203bhp and 330Nm; that’s enough to whittle the official 0-62mph time down from 7.9 to 7.6 seconds.
To try and appreciate the improvements in the driving experience, we tested the outgoing and new Qashqai e-Power back-to-back, and there is a definite (if very subtle) improvement in refinement. For instance, the old engine sounded harsher and seemed to emit a constant drone while cruising on the motorway, then roaring into life when we floored the throttle. By contrast, the new one is generally much quieter, especially on the motorway, as Nissan promised.
In town, however, we found it impossible to tell the difference between the two cars, which is understandable because both are propelled by a silent electric motor. We often noticed a delay in power delivery when trying to accelerate, however, which breaks the illusion that you’re driving an EV.
We still like the stronger regenerative braking setting, which Nissan calls the e-Pedal mode, that you activate easily by pressing a button on the centre console. It might not deliver the genuine one-pedal driving you get in some EVs, but it does slow the car considerably when you lift off the throttle and helps in town-centre traffic. The only downside is that, when you hit the open road, the brake pedal doesn’t feel as natural as when you switch the system off.
Nissan says it’s also updated its ‘ProPilot’ adaptive cruise control system. Among the improvements are an automatic and predictive speed limit function, which can slow the car down in preparation for a new speed limit to help prevent drivers from getting tickets.
Of course, a lot of buyers prefer to go without the various safety and driver-assistance systems cars come with these, which is understandable. We had to deal with some incessant bonging from the speed-limit warning and lane-keep assist systems during our test drive.
Turning each system off individually in the Qashqai requires the driver to use the buttons on the steering wheel to trawl through various menus on the digital driver’s display, which is as slow, overly complicated and distracting a process as it sounds. Thankfully you can set-up a personalised profile for the Qashqai’s ADAS suite, and quickly activate it by tapping a single button on the steering wheel.
We’ve been told the new Nissan Qashqai e-Power will cost the same as the existing version, which is available from £34,860 – nearly £2,000 more than a mild-hybrid automatic model in the same specification. The first cars featuring the new and improved e-Power set-up are due to arrive on customers’ driveways by September.
| Model: | Nissan Qashqai e-Power Tekna+ |
| Price: | £39,155 |
| On sale: | July |
| Powertrain: | 1.5-litre 3cyl petrol hybrid |
| Power/torque: | 203bhp/330Nm |
| Transmission: | Single-speed automatic, front-wheel drive |
| 0-62mph: | 7.6 seconds |
| Top speed: | 105mph |
| Economy/CO2: | 62mpg/102g/km |
| Size (L/W/H): | 4,425/1,835/1,575mm |
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