After having revealed the new generation of Juke, Nissan prepares to launch an authentic “SUV offensive”. In the next 18 months, the Japanese brand intends to launch not only the successors of the Qashqai and the X-Trail, but also an unprecedented electric SUV based on the Ariya prototype that Nissan unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show and took to CES 2020.
Starting with the successor to the Nissan Qashqai, the Japanese brand's best-seller in Europe, everything indicates that it will be inspired by the IMQ Concept unveiled at last year's Geneva Motor Show.
For now, little is known about the third generation of the Nissan Qashqai. Still, one thing is certain, Nissan's SUV will abandon diesel engines. Confirmation was given to us by a responsible for the brand outside the Nissan Crossover Domination and in place of Diesel hybrid gasoline solutions will emerge.
Nissan IMQ Concept. It takes away the visual excesses typical of prototypes and this could very well be the next Qashqai.
Nissan Ariya, an SUV-shaped Leaf
If the arrival of the Qashqai's successor, scheduled for the last quarter of the year, is not surprising, the same cannot be said of the new electric SUV that Nissan is preparing to launch in 2021.
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Heavily inspired by the Ariya concept, it remains to be seen whether this electric SUV will inherit the prototype's name. What is already known is that Nissan will use it as a showcase of its technological capability, having even described the prototype as an “icon of Nissan Intelligent Mobility”.
As such, Nissan's first electric SUV will feature systems such as the ProPILOT 2.0; the “Intelligent Route Planner”; or CHAdeMO's fast charging system, all new to the Ariya concept.
Finally, Nissan's electric SUV based on the Ariya concept will (also) use two electric motors, thus featuring all-wheel drive. It remains to be seen whether details such as the 12.3” screen that we saw in the concept will go into production.
X-Trail's successor will be the first
The first of Nissan's SUV models to hit the market will be the successor to the X-Trail, with British Autocar pointing out that it could be unveiled as early as the summer, even before the successor to the Qashqai.
Interestingly, despite being the first to be revealed, the successor to the X-Trail is also the model about which the least is known. It could even happen that the successor to X-Trail will introduce many of the technological solutions that have already been heralded by the next generation of Qashqai.
Will the biggest X-Trail also abandon diesel engines in favor of hybrid mechanics? We will have to wait.
Unveiled at the 2018 Detroit Motor Show, does the Nissan Xmotion Concept anticipate the forms of the new X-Trail?
Aesthetically, we weren't surprised that it would take some inspiration from the Nissan Xmotion Concept prototype unveiled in 2018 at the Detroit Motor Show.