Nissan Ariya Review

30 August 2022

The Nissan Ariya is a new all-electric coupe crossover offering family-friendly levels of space along with choices of battery size and options of front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive.

This is a review for the Nissan Ariya

Coupe crossover offers spacious interior

Two battery sizes

Three power outputs

Front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive

Nissan Ariya design & powertrain

The Nissan Ariya is an all-new EV with an all-new design – it’s a ‘coupe crossover’, which basically means an SUV with a fastback body style. The boot is a decent size, at 466 litres, and rear-seat passengers have good levels of legroom thanks in part to the flat floor.

The Nissan Ariya is available with a 63kWh or 87kWh battery; with power outputs of 160kW, 178kW or 225kW; and with front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive.

What is the Nissan Ariya like to drive?

The Nissan Ariya feels like an SUV to drive, with a comfortable ride quality, and steering that is tuned for ease of use rather than being sharp like a sports car. This translates to the handling having similar qualities – ie. more comfort-focused than sport-orientated.

The Ariya with the ‘entry-level’ 160kW power output offers sufficient performance. This model is also front-wheel drive; the all-wheel drive version will offer more grip.

There are three drive modes of Sport, Standard and Eco, and you can pull the gear selector towards you to select ‘B’, which is an increased level of brake regeneration. There’s also the option of much stronger brake regeneration by switching on the ‘ePedal’, which can bring the Ariya to a halt just by lifting off the accelerator – ie. no pressure on the brake pedal is required.

The Ariya’s dashboard follows the current fashion of removing all traditional physical buttons. You’re left with a column of shortcut buttons on the right-hand side of the central touchscreen, and there are also some ‘Haptic Touch Controls’, such as for the drive modes, that are printed directly onto interior surfaces, which don’t give you the feedback of a traditional button when you touch them.

There are some heating and ventilation controls under the touchscreen, but to access the full range of climate controls you need to press the climate shortcut button.

The Ariya has a maximum towing capability of 750kg for the 2WD model and 1,500kg for the all-wheel drive e-4ORCE model.

Charging the Nissan Ariya

The Nissan Ariya Advance 63kWh 2WD has a WLTP electric driving range of 250 miles. Real-world electric range is likely to be around 200 miles on a full charge.

The Ariya has a maximum DC rapid charging rate of 130 kW, and 7.4kW for AC charging, with 22kW optional.

The Ariya 87kWh can recover up to 217 miles with a 30-minute rapid charge.

The Nissan LEAF and e-NV200 van featured a CHAdeMO charging connector; the Ariya instead has the more common CCS connector.

The Nissan Ariya price and model range

The Nissan Ariya is available in two grades, Advance and Evolve, and with three different battery and powertrain combinations: 2WD 63kWh, 2WD 87kWh, and e-4ORCE AWD 87kWh.

Pricing for the 63kWh battery version with 160kW of power and an onboard 7.4kW AC Charger starts at £43,845 for the Advance and £47,840 for the Evolve.

For the larger 87kW battery with up to 329 miles of range, 178kW of power and a more powerful onboard 22kW AC charger, the Advance is priced at £49,595 with Evolve at £53,590.

For all-wheel drive and greater performance, the e-4ORCE version has a 47kW increase in power to 225kW and it doubles the amount of torque to 600Nm. The e-4ORCE version is priced from £52,295 for the Advance grade or £56,290 for the Evolve.

Conclusion

The Nissan Ariya offers an all-electric powertrain, a spacious body style and fresh styling. Buyers can choose between a 63 kWh battery or an 87 kWh battery; between power outputs of 160kW, 178kW or 225kW; and between front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive.

The driving experience and the overall quality of the design and engineering of the Nissan Ariya feels more ‘premium’ than the LEAF, but so it should with the higher price.