Next-Generation Nissan Qashqai To Get Two Hybrid Powertrains

Next year, the third-generation Nissan Qashqai will hit the market and, according to Auto Express, will be sold with at least two hybrid powertrains.

Underpinning the new Qashqai will be the latest CMF platform from the Renault-Nissan alliance that supports electrification. The first hybrid powertrain available with the new Qashqai will be Nissan’s ePower system and it will be a conventional hybrid. The second will take the form of a plug-in hybrid borrowed from Mitsubishi, which uses a petrol engine as a generator to charge the battery powering the electric motor.

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“We’re investigating the ePower technology for Europe,” Nissan’s European vice president of product planning Ponz Pandikuthira said. “The biggest difference when you do these onboard generator vehicles is highway driving – in Japan, they typically don’t go above 50-65 mph. Here in Europe, you do 80-85 mph on a regular basis. At those speeds, you end up depleting the battery very quickly, so the range extender has to work really hard to keep the energy going and then it goes out of its range of efficiency.”

Interestingly, Pandikuthira added that Nissan won’t pursue plug-in hybrids all that aggressively and simply try them out, like with the next-gen Qashqai. According to him, plug-ins are simply a bridge technology “for the next two to four years until battery costs drop to the point where the variable costs of making full EVs prevail.”

Beyond its powertrains, the new Qashqai will receive Nissan’s latest ProPilot autonomous driving systems and a suite of added connectivity features. Visually, it will have a more mature design than the outgoing model and be similar in size.