Nissan Qashqai's e-Power tech provides a baby step toward electric living

The first time I heard about Nissan's e-Power solution was during the 2017 Tokyo auto show.

Nissan was talking about how its new twist on the hybrid drivetrain had turned the Note small minivan into a “Prius killer” in Japan. That was a reference to Toyota's full-hybrid sedan, which was getting seriously challenged by the Note in the Japanese rivals' home market.

The trend continued in 2018, which is when the Note became Japan's best-selling car.

But it took Nissan a while to get the e-Power tech into its lineup in Europe, where average driving speeds are a lot higher than in Japan. Nissans engineers need time to overcome the challenge .

The first model in Europe to offer the solution is the new Qashqai, which added e-Power in 2022.

Nissan's drivetrain tech works for anyone who wants to get a taste of the electric vehicle life but doesn't want to plug in.

The Qashqai e-Power I tested has many of the characteristics of a full-electric car. For instance, the Qashqai e-Power's e-pedal functions just like it would in the Leaf. In both cars it makes the brake pedal nearly superfluous, and in doing so puts some charge back into the battery.

What impressed me about the e-pedal is that without even trying the power level remained at about 50 percent. That power was needed to drive the vehicle in full EV mode, which can be done with the press of a button. Nissan says the range in EV-only mode is 2 to 3 km (about 1 to 2 miles) if the battery is fully charged. That was more than enough during my test as it provided battery-powered driving when I was stuck in slow-moving traffic or when I entered or left a parking space.

It's true that EV mode can only be used low speeds, the engine will kick in at about 50 kph (31 mph) if the battery is fully charge, but it still helps provide slow EV adopters some idea of what the differences are compared with a combustion-driven car.

In Europe, e-Power models such as the e-Power Qashqai uses a 1.5-liter gasoline engine to directly charge an on-board battery that powers a motor to drive the wheels. This is known as a “series” setup in which the engine does not directly power the wheels. The drivetrain differs from “parallel” hybrids sold by Toyota, in which the engine can power the wheels directly in some situations.

Along with the Qashqai Nissan has added a version of the X-Trail midsize SUV with e-Power.

The only disappointment from the e-Power system was that the fuel economy was not as impressive as I had hoped. The average fuel economy was 6.70 liters per 100 km (35.1 miles per gallon) during a mix of highway and city driving over 530 km at an average speed of 100 kph (62 mph). That is well above the WLTP result the car received during testing: 5.3 to 5.4 liters per 100 km, according to figures from Nissan.

The same 530-km trip done in our 2012 BMW X3 with a 2.0-liter diesel (we had two vehicles for the journey) was done using 5.24 liters per 100 km (44.9 mpg).

The Qashqai e-Power has three distinctive three driving modes. Eco-mode is noticeably underpowered to preserve fuel while the Sport mode is definitely more exciting. Therefore, I found myself staying in standard mode, which provides a nice mix of power and fuel economy.

Some much appreciated perks inside the Qashqai e-Power include the seamless usage of the mobile phone with the Bluetooth. It was also possible to have stream my favorite U.S. radio station whenever I got into the car after a super easy initial setup. In nearly a decade of ownership of the X3 the Bluetooth phone function has been a disaster and there is no viable way to get my favorite internet radio station to play in the car through the sound system.

The Qashqai e-Power has the birds'-eye-view camera, which has been around for years but whenever I use it I'm reminded that it is such a vastly better system than the beeping sensors in the X3.

One major downsize of the Qashqai e-Power was that the adaptive cruise control was difficult to get started. Making matter worse is that somehow I active the speed limiting function, which kept trying to force me to derive 100 kph (62 mph) when the speed limit on the highway was 130 kph. I have no idea what I was doing wrong and I eventually gave up. I guess I should have reviewed a YouTube video.

All in all, the Qashqai e-Power is a solid choice for those looking to ease into the EV era, but it could come with an increase in fuel costs if you are trading in a diesel and if you're doing a lot of highway driving.