When we road tested the new Nissan Qashqai, we speculated that a smoother and more powerful hybrid powertrain would complete the package. Having now driven the Qashqai E-Power, it mostly does:
It sets off on silent electric power. The power flow graphic on the dashboard occasionally lets you know that the engine is running to top up the battery, but thanks to good sound insulation and some clever noise cancelling from the speakers, you generally can’t hear it.
Put your foot down and the engine switches to lower compression and higher revs to make sure there’s enough charge for the electric motor to deliver its 188bhp. The off-beat warble from the three-pot isn’t offensive, but a silent EV it is not. The effect is distinctly CVT-like, but think present-day well-manneredA convincing hybrid, then, even if it’s some way short of revolutionary.
A better Qashqai in every way, the E-Power the one to go for, right? Probably, but that recommendation comes with two big caveats. Firstly, the car we drove was a pre-production car and our experience was limited to a handful of laps of a course that mimicked a mix of town, B-road and motorway driving. It gave us a very good taste ofthe hybrid system, but we’d need to live with the car for a few days to give a definitive verdict.
The bigger issue is that prices have not been announced yet. To pull off its series hybrid trick, the E-Power has a bigger electric motor and a bigger battery than most full hybrids. So it wouldn’t be surprising if the whole car ended up costing more than rivals. The Qashqai E-Power is one of the more convincing cars of its kind, but it will still need to be competitively priced if it is to earn our recommendation.
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