Nissan Ariya Driving, Engines & Performance

Top Gear

2 days ago

The 302bhp one has more of a spring in its step, and manages the 0-62mph sprint in 5.7 seconds. It's not going to squeeze the breath from your lungs, but there's significant out-of-corner power and strong A-road overtaking potential. Tractors, beware.
Let's start with the cheapest powertrain – small battery, front driven. It means acceleration that's less in absolute terms than, say, a 2.0-litre non-sporty petrol crossover, but the point is – as with any EV – it's always there for you. No waiting for turbo boost or downshifts. So it's adequate unless you're being ambitious up hills.
Still, there's good dry road traction even in the FWD version and it resists understeer unless you heave it into a tight bend, where you suddenly feel the Ariya's mass. In faster corners it's got a nice neutral feel. On a motorway it sits stable and true.
The steering is progressively weighted in the normal drive mode, and accurate. Sports mode has an inconsistent weighting. Neither has any feel for the tyre grip, but that's par for this kind of car.
Nope. As with any other EV, neither max regeneration nor e-pedal will give you any more miles to play with: they're just different ways of accessing the same retardation. Even in coasting mode, pressing the brake pedal starts by giving regen, and then when that's used up it brings the pads onto the discs.
The brake pedal is nice and progressive, the regeneration and friction blending seamlessly. You can also switch to e-pedal drive, Nissan's system for upping the regen to the extent you'll come to a full stop without touching the brakes at all. It's relaxing in town, as you don't have to shuffle your foot constantly.
The 4WD one is neutral under power, and is more involving to carve through medium-speed corners than most rivals. You can feel each tyre doing its work, as it uses the torque vectoring to quell understeer. Besides, its steering and brakes have less rubbery slack than the class norm.
The bigger battery one with four-wheel drive can tow a 1,500kg braked trailer, which is unusual for an EV. Can't imagine what that does to your range, mind.
Noted. Is it comfy?
The ride is quite like a Qashqai's: fairly taut, with a bit of high frequency spring. It copes well with most undulations, and the tyres are normally quiet. But it doesn't like sharp ridges or potholes.
Nissan pioneered Level 2 driver assist (fancy cruise control) with its ProPilot system, and it's fitted as standard on all but the entry-level Engage trim. Works well, keeping the car in lane and following the vehicle in front. New tweaks include capacitive sensors in the steering wheel so it knows your hands are on: no need to give a little 'I'm here' twitch every 15 seconds or so.
That's a relief.
Indeed. Also the steering assistance is calibrated more naturally: if you're in the middle lane overtaking a truck, it will move slightly to the right to keep further away from the truck. The car will slow down when the navigation knows a sharper curve is coming up.
Talking of long journeys the DC intake is a reasonably brisk 130kW, well able to take advantage of rapid chargers.
The base car charges at 7kW on home AC or public points, which means flat to full overnight. But you'd never go quite flat. With the bigger battery that will take 13 hours. And anyway the big battery also comes with a 22kW on-board charger, cutting it to about four hours on a public three-phase AC socket, increasingly common in car parks.
What about the fast one?
Ah, you mean the Ariya Nismo. It's based on the dual motor AWD version of the Ariya, only power is up to 429bhp, an increase of 128 horses. Torque remains the same at 443lb ft but it gets a new 60:40 rear bias, while zero to 62mph is seen off in five seconds flat.
The steering and suspension have also been retuned, with a new front stabiliser bar and stiffer springs (by three per cent at the front, 10 at the rear). The brakes remain standard, although the ABS has been recalibrated, which in tandem with the grippier Michelin Pilot Sport EV tyres lowers stopping distances by eight per cent.
Those tyres and the extra power give the range a good kicking though – you're down to 261 miles of WLTP here, and we got a disappointing 2.7 mi/kWh out of the car in mild weather, which works out at 235 miles of range.
Not much to write home about then?
The Nismo doesn't feel noticeably quicker than the regular dual motor Ariya, even in Nismo mode, which it needs to be in to unlock maximum power and the rear bias delivery. Nor does it offer any more dynamic engagement (or any more faux noise), so it's no more rewarding to drive. Hmm.
And the ride – already quite firm on the standard car – is simply too harsh for a family crossover. It grips gamely round fast, flowing bends, aided by the fancy torque vectoring system, but it's very sensitive to road surfaces and prone to wheelspin. And you'll be quickly reminded that it's a 2.2-tonne behemoth if you throw it into a corner with too much gusto. At which point not upgrading the brakes feels like an oversight.
Honestly, Nismo-Line might have been more apt.