Nissan to drop diesel from Qashqai

Nissan will stop offering diesels in its next Qashqai compact SUV, a source close to automaker said, as it puts electrification at the forefront of its European strategy.

Along with gasoline-powered variants, Nissan will offer the third-generation Qashqai, which is due to be revealed next September, with the automaker’s e-Power system. The serial hybrid drivetrain, which is popular in Japan, lets a car function like an electric vehicle because its combustion engine is only used to charge the battery.

The Qashqai may also offer a plug-in hybrid option using a system from Renault-Nissan alliance partner Mitsubishi, media reports have said.

Nissan’s move away from diesels comes as European demand for the powertrain has declined to roughly 30 percent now from 45 percent in 2017, according to figures from industry association ACEA. Nissan's share is also about 30 percent now, down from 47 percent two years ago, according to JATO Dynamics.

“We have seen a significant drop in diesel,” Nissan Europe Chairman Gianluca de Ficchy told Automotive News Europe. “We are adapting ourselves to follow that trend.”

De Ficchy wants more than 40 percent of Nissan’s sales in Europe to be electrified models by 2022 to make sure it avoids EU fines that loom for automakers that fail to comply with tougher emissions regulations that start to take effect next year.

“We assumed the overall electrified market will be about 20 percent to 24 percent by 2022, but we want 42 percent in Europe,” he said.

Along with helping to meet CO2 targets, a high penetration of electrified models will be good for Nissan’s brand image, de Ficchy said.

“If you want a sustainable business model in Europe that meets both corporate and customer regulations, you need to be far above that average,” he said.

There are risks, however, the come with pulling the diesel from the Qashqai, which competes in a segment that had the highest number of diesel sales through 10 months, 621,242, and where models with the powertrain accounted for 44 percent of overall sales, according to JATO.

Switching to gasoline variants is difficult for customers in SUV segments because they are not as efficient, which results in a higher fuel bill.

The Volkswagen Tiguan, which overtook the Qashqai in terms of 10-month sales to lead the compact SUV sector, was also Europe’s top-selling diesel model overall through October.

When Nissan makes it move away from offering diesels in the segment it will join Toyota and Honda, which don’t offer the powertrain in the RAV4 and CR-V, respectively. Both brands focus on offering their compact SUVs as gasoline-electric hybrids instead.