From £30,0758

Nissan's Sunderland-made mid-sized crossover keeps practicality, comfort, value and ease of use at the heart of its positioning

The third-generation Nissan Qashqai has just received a mid-life facelift in two separate instalments. The first part came along in the summer of 2024, when the car’s exterior styling, cabin design and digital technology were refreshed. The second part, just released into production, was centred much more on the powertrain.

This test will concern itself with the content of both model-year overhauls, although it’s the mechanical stuff that seems the most significant. That’s because the Qashqai became Nissan’s first global model to benefit from its  new third-generation e-Power hybrid powertrain.

The headline sell on the e-Power drive concept is that it offers the refinement, linear drivability and feel of a fully electric vehicle, along with the fuel economy of a diesel, in something you can fill from a petrol pump rather than a seven-pin cable.

The first generation of e-Power models (launching in 2016, there was a Note supermini and even a Serena MPV) never came to Europe, but the Qashqai became the first European e-Power Nissan with the second-generation hybrid system in 2022, and now bloods the third-generation version.

Range at a glance

VERSION POWER
1.3T MHV 140 138bhp
1.3T MHV 158 156bhp
E-POWER 203bhp

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DESIGN & STYLING

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Nissan Qashqai e Power review 2025 02 panning

Nissan’s UK-based engineering team describe the Qashqai’s new hybrid powertrain as the first clean-sheet reset that the set-up has had. It brings an all-new 1.5-litre three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine, as well as a pair of permanent magnet synchronous motors of the sort you will also find in the incoming Nissan Leaf.

One motor is driven by the combustion engine via ‘increaser’ gearing, to act as a current generator. The other, outputting up to 203bhp and 243lb ft of torque and connected to the front axle via entirely separate ‘reduction’ gearing, is the car’s only direct source of drive. Only now, the engine, both motors, both gearsets and the current inverter are integrated into one common ‘5-in-1’ block assembly, in order to save weight and improve refinement.

New radiator grille is a little bit eggbox-like. Nissan prefers to describe it as having a ‘floating comma’ look, with those to each side finished in satin chrome in contrast to gloss black. It does, at least, look different.

The car’s piston engine is an all-new design, with more undersquare cylinders than in the second-generation e-Power system, and with a bigger turbocharger – both modifications allowing it to produce greater torque at lower crank speeds. The engine redesign has also allowed Nissan to employ new lean-burn combustion control technology – called STARC (although as far as we know Iron Man had no part in its development) – and to fully optimise the motor for particular use as a power generator. The result is an impressive overall thermal efficiency of 42%.

The key fact remains, of course, that there’s no mechanical connection at all between the car’s reciprocating pistons and its front axle’s driven wheels. As demand on the drive motor increases, piston engine speed may rise in order for the generator to supply sufficient system voltage to meet the demand, buffering power in and out of the car’s 2.1kWh drive battery (located under the front seats) as it does so. As demand falls, the piston engine takes every opportunity to shut down. At no point does the car need to be plugged in, and yet it can undertake a significant percentage of urban journeys in electric mode.

The third-generation ‘J12’ Qashqai entered production at Nissan’s Sunderland factory in 2021, using the firm’s CMF-C/D platform (also used by the Renault Austral and Rafale and the Nissan X-Trail). If you don’t want a full hybrid, it can be had in mild-hybrid form with a 1.3-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol instead, for either 138bhp or 156bhp. All versions of the car are now front-wheel drive, with Nissan’s two-pedal Xtronic CVT available on the upper-tier 1.3-litre turbo petrol.

Where suspension is concerned, the Qashqai’s offering is oddly derivative-specific. Order either N-Design or Tekna+ trim, on 20in wheels, and you will get a multi-link rear axle; order anything on a smaller rim and you will get a torsion beam rear axle instead.

Nissan’s exterior design tweaks for the 2024 revision of the car included a new three-dimensional, gloss black radiator grille; redesigned headlights with sequential LED turn indicators; and new tail-lights. The revised e-Power version gets updated door mirrors and a tweaked underbody aero package to help cut its drag coefficient. It can also be had on 17in wheels at entry-level Acenta Premium grade, in a bid to reduce rolling resistance and boost efficiency (although our test car was a Tekna+ on 20s).

INTERIOR

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Nissan Qashqai e Power review 2025 08 dash

The Qashqai famously founded the modern crossover hatchback class, and while that class has diversified a great deal over the years, this car still sits towards its notional centre in terms of size and practicality. There are smaller, sportier and more desirability-driven models below it (Volkswagen T-Roc, Toyota C-HR, Mini Countryman) and there are larger five-seat SUVs above it (Volkswagen Tiguan, Vauxhall Grandland, Citroën C5 Aircross) – all of which compare closely on price. And then there are the premium-brand options (Audi Q3, BMW X1, Range Rover Evoque). The Nissan’s aim remains to combine a broadly hatchback-like driving experience and fairly compact proportions with plenty of SUV-level space, comfort and versatility.

It succeeds at the space and versatility part quite well. Unlike in smaller crossovers, most adults will be able to travel in the back seats in plenty of comfort. A Kia Sportage offers a little more leg room but less head room, according to our tape measure. The Qashqai’s boot space is a close match for the Kia’s, beating it for maximum loading width and height but losing out in terms of seats-down loading length. Higher-grade models lose a little outright cargo volume relative to lower-tier ones (455 litres compared with up to 504 litres), but since our test car was in Tekna+ guise, clearly even that model offers plenty.

The Qashqai's heating and ventilation unit is a model of easy usability. The infotainment screen above is also good on that score. On both, you can't beat chunky physical switchgear for making operation easier.

First appearing in 2021, this generation of Qashqai isn’t desperately old, yet its cabin is laid out in a way that is quite alien to many recent debutants, with plenty of welcome physical switchgear. Proper fixed heating and ventilation controls are in place and easy to use, and there are useful ADAS switches and physical audio controls. 

Nissan added a mix of leather and suede to range-topping models like ours last year in a bid to enhance interior ambience and better compete with premium rivals, but this still feels like a rather dry and monotone cabin lacking some character and charm. Nonetheless, it is solid-feeling, simply laid out and easy to interact with.

Multimedia - 4 stars

The Qashqai’s 12.3in NissanConnect touchscreen multimedia system was added in 2024, and improved the car’s digital offering quite significantly. It offers full wireless smartphone mirroring but also has Google voice assistant, a Google Maps-based navigation system and Google Play networked entertainment options all built in, so if you have an Android-based smartphone in particular, it should work well for you. We found the wireless charging pad tended to overheat a phone quickly, however.

Although it lacks any physical or tactile input device, the screen itself is easy to navigate via either a navigation bar on the right-hand side or a tiled home screen. Flicking back and forth between native and mirroring modes is easy, and thanks to a custom ADAS setting accessed via the trip computer, you don’t have to dive several menus deep on the touchscreen to deactivate otherwise irksome active safety systems.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

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Nissan Qashqai e Power review 2025 16 engine

Look carefully around the Qashqai e-Power and you will notice plenty of refinement-boosting touches. These include foam padding inside the front wing cavities to prevent noise transmission via the wheel arches, and an extra layer of foam carpeting under the boot floor. Clearly, one of Nissan’s core aims for this car was to improve its NVH (noise, vibration and harshness) performance.

And it has hit that target right on the bullseye. Quietness in normal running is a striking attribute of this car. Whereas the previous e-Power, like other hybrids, was refined when driven under electric power but quickly became less so when the engine had work to do, the new one has a convincing hush about it even when the turbocharged triple is spinning.

The e-Power does have a selectable EV mode, but it's good for only about two to three miles at urban speeds. That’s more than you will get out of any ‘self-charging’ hybrid Toyota, mind you.

That’s partly because it has a smoother and better-isolated engine anyway, but also because that unit can produce what torque is needed at lower revs than the old e-Power’s could. The combined effect of both factors was recorded by our decibel meter: the Qashqai generated 62dBA of cabin noise at a 50mph cruise, which is an impressive result especially given the 20in fitted wheels of our test car (Kia Sportage HEV: 63dBA, Peugeot e-3008 Allure: 64dBA, BMW X1 23i: 66dBA). Pick a car on smaller rims and you can expect it to be quieter still.

A distant three-cylinder chunter is all you really detect of the engine during everyday motoring. Except when you need full power, at which point there is a small but detectable delay in powertrain response while that engine spins up to sufficient revs to supply the voltage.

You wouldn’t call this elastic band effect, because the car’s electric drive motor has plenty of power and torque, for open-road acceleration and even normal overtaking, even before the engine hits peak power. Acceleration is dampened a little from rest – note how much quicker the car is from 30-70mph than from 0-60mph. But, otherwise, available power is plentiful, even at motorway speeds, and pedal response is very crisp and linear.

There’s enough torque here to be able to maintain a decent cruising speed using 25% throttle or less. When you do, the engine only runs intermittently, to top up the battery, which is typically maintained at between 50% and 70% charge.

The car’s one-pedal drive mode doesn’t quite bring it to a stop in traffic without any braking input, as an EV might, but it does allow you to choose between de facto strong and weak regenerative braking modes. Brake pedal progression and feel is good in normal driving, becoming slightly soft in more intensive use.

Our test car stopped consistently well, and strongly enough, in the dry. Its Michelin Primacy tyres struggled somewhat for mechanical grip on Horiba MIRA’s wet surfaces, however. Their apparently hard compound combined with standing water to cause the anti-lock brakes to work a little noisily, though just about effectively enough.

As regards other powertrains, the Qashqai's 1.3-litre, 156bhp mild hybrid powertrain makes a slightly ordinary, though passable, impression from the driver’s seat.

It's surprisingly torquey at bumbling revs once the turbocharger’s spooled up - though it’s not the smoothest engine when engaging on the clutch, the electric assistance failing to cover for the turbocharged engine’s momentary lethargy. Drivability is good, once the motor’s pulling - but it doesn’t respond instantly, nor rev particularly keenly beyond 4000rpm, and becomes coarser and more thrashy at high revs than you’d imagine based on its better manners at lower revs.

The X-tronic CVT, meanwhile, masks the engine’s off-boost torpor but suffers from an irritating surge in acceleration at more than a quarter throttle that’s disproportionate with your inputs. It also feels poorly integrated with the start/stop system, sending a judder through the driveline each time the engine cuts in and out. 

While Nissan claims to have tuned the variable-compression petrol engine to better match vehicle speed – a response to criticism of the jarring ‘rubber band’ effect of a CVT gearbox – it still produces a fairly monotonous and uninspiring melody. The best course is to be light with the right foot and let it tick away quietly.

RIDE & HANDLING

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Nissan Qashqai e Power review 2025 20 rear panning

The Qashqai e-Power’s chassis engineers have clearly tried to follow the lead of their powertrain colleagues and boost this car’s credentials as a comfortable-riding family car – but they have had less success.

It’s apparent that the supple-riding, well-isolated rolling persona of a bigger SUV was what Nissan was aiming for here, and there is certainly decent absorption of bigger lumps and bumps, and a fairly fluent, easy-going motorway gait about the car.

But there is just a bit too much softness about the close body control, as well as a tendency for the body to over-react to inputs that affect one side of the axles or the other and to shuffle its weight laterally with plenty of head toss; while some brittleness affects the car’s secondary ride, too.

In the broadest terms, you might say that the car seldom seems to settle on its axles for long when in motion, and has a cabin that’s prone to disturbance by lots of unsprung mass, which never feels very well controlled. On smaller wheels and with a torsion beam rear axle, the car’s ride could feel quite different, but we can’t right now comment on exactly how.

There is reasonable agility and manoeuvrability about the car’s handling, delivered through medium-paced steering of matching weight, about which there is little either to criticise or recommend. It doesn’t feel like a particularly big car in tight spaces, and it corners assuredly and without much body roll for the most part – at least until you approach its adhesive margins.

The ESC system works well, and fairly unobtrusively, to keep the car on line and quell any drive-related understeer that a hasty right foot might cause a torquey electric motor to otherwise cue up. But you can turn it fully off – and when you do, you can become quite suddenly aware of the modest grip level of those Primacy tyres.

Assisted Driving - 4.5 stars

Nissan’s ProPilot suite of ADAS features for the Qashqai include, as standard, an AEB system with pedestrian and cyclist detection and junction assist; lane keeping and blindspot monitoring; driver monitoring; speed limit monitoring; and an intelligent cruise control. Mid-spec N-Connecta trim adds ProPilot Assist (which is semi-autonomous steering for the adaptive cruise).

The lane keeping and steering assist systems are easily toggled on and off via a physical button on the fascia; the driver monitoring isn’t irksome or intrusive; and there’s a custom ADAS mode, accessible via two button presses, through which you can quickly disable the monitoring nannies you don’t want. So usability overall isn’t annoying or distracting, and the systems seem well tuned.

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

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Nissan Qashqai e Power review 2025 01 front cornering

The Qashqai is offered through a simple five-tier derivative line-up, with two of those tiers – N-Design and Tekna – commanding identical prices but offering alternative balances of exterior style and interior equipment.

The car’s mild-hybrid DIG-T derivatives certainly offer pretty convincing value, but an e-Power is almost £5000 more expensive than an entry-level DIG-T 140. Avoid Tekna+ trim and your car will be more comparable to key hybrid rivals on showroom price, though still more expensive than plenty – albeit well equipped for the money.

Going for a higher-end model - now with ambient lighting and alcantara trim - would seem to me to be a bit extravagant. The Qashqai’s a simple, functional thing at heart; and at its best kept that way.

It would be efficient, too. Our test car – on 20in wheels, remember, and so subject to improvement on smaller fitted rims – returned a very commendable test average economy of 50.4mpg; a motorway touring test result of 48.8mpg; and ‘everyday’ urban efficiency of 65.2mpg (Vauxhall Grandland Hybrid GS: 47.0mpg, 52.2mpg, 56.4mpg). For owners who drive mostly in town, there ought to be few petrol-powered direct rivals as efficient, excluding plug-in options (if only when allowing for power that adds to your domestic electricity bill).

VERDICT

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Nissan’s range-topping Qashqai hybrid felt doomed to fail an impossible mission – to keep a combustion engine and pretend to be an EV – when we first met it three years ago. Now, however, it has made that mission seem a lot more realistic.

New-found noise isolation and a less intrusive engine combine to make the car pleasant to drive around town, where it is also remarkably efficient.

While particularly frugal around town, this car can clearly also be efficient when cruising. Nissan did the 837-mile Land’s End to John O’Groats run in one, and claims to have had 100 miles of range remaining in the tank.

Out of town it’s a little less convincing, mostly due to a slightly restless ride and a lack of good close body control; and here the hybrid system’s advantages are less in play. There is also a fairly high price to consider, plus a slightly humdrum design and positioning relative to some rivals.

In a market that’s widely coming back to hybrids, though, this one has quite a lot going for it, and climbs in our estimations accordingly.

Sam Phillips

Sam Phillips
Title: Staff Writer

Sam joined the Autocar team in summer 2024 and has been a contributor since 2021. He is tasked with writing used reviews and first drives as well as updating top 10s and evergreen content on the Autocar website. 

He previously led sister-title Move Electric, which covers the entire spectrum of electric vehicles, from cars to boats – and even trucks. He is an expert in new car news, used cars, electric cars, microbility, classic cars and motorsport. 

Sam graduated from Nottingham Trent University in 2021 with a BA in Journalism. In his final year he produced an in-depth feature on the automotive industry’s transition to electric cars and interviewed a number of leading experts to assess our readiness for the impending ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars.

Charlie Martin

Charlie Martin Autocar
Title: Staff Writer

As part of Autocar’s news desk, Charlie plays a key role in the title’s coverage of new car launches and industry events. He’s also a regular contributor to its social media channels, creating content for Instagram, Tiktok, Facebook and Twitter.

Charlie joined Autocar in July 2022 after a nine-month stint as an apprentice with sister publication What Car?, during which he acquired his gold-standard NCTJ diploma with the Press Association.

He is the proud owner of a Mk4 Mazda MX-5 but still feels pangs of guilt over selling his first car, a Fiat Panda 100HP.

Matt Saunders

Matt Saunders Autocar
Title: Road test editor

As Autocar’s chief car tester and reviewer, it’s Matt’s job to ensure the quality, objectivity, relevance and rigour of the entirety of Autocar’s reviews output, as well contributing a great many detailed road tests, group tests and drive reviews himself.

Matt has been an Autocar staffer since the autumn of 2003, and has been lucky enough to work alongside some of the magazine’s best-known writers and contributors over that time. He served as staff writer, features editor, assistant editor and digital editor, before joining the road test desk in 2011.

Since then he’s driven, measured, lap-timed, figured, and reported on cars as varied as the Bugatti Veyron, Rolls-Royce PhantomTesla RoadsterAriel Hipercar, Tata Nano, McLaren SennaRenault Twizy and Toyota Mirai. Among his wider personal highlights of the job have been covering Sebastien Loeb’s record-breaking run at Pikes Peak in 2013; doing 190mph on derestricted German autobahn in a Brabus Rocket; and driving McLaren’s legendary ‘XP5’ F1 prototype. His own car is a trusty Mazda CX-5.