It looks like Nissan is considering adding a new, 1.5-liter turbocharged three-cylinder to the Rogue lineup, as evidenced by a listing on the EPA website. The smaller unit could join the 2.5-liter inline-four that is currently the crossover’s only available engine.
First spotted by Car and Driver, Nissan told the outlet that this was simply part of a test program. We reached out to Nissan Canada and it appears that it is a pilot program for North America.
“Nissan regularly evaluates potential future technologies on existing models,” a spokesperson told us. “We are planning a small pilot program with a potential new powertrain, utilizing the 2021 Nissan Rogue. We have nothing further to announce at this time.”
Unfortunately, the EPA posting doesn’t reveal anything about how much power the engine will make, but it does show some interesting details, chief among them being the fuel economy.
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The agency estimates that the powertrain returns 30 mpg in the city, 37 mpg on the highway, and 33 mpg combined in FWD configuration. The fuel economy rating does reveal that the engine could be used for an AWD model that would achieve the same mileage in the city and combined, but would return 36 mpg on the highway.
In the heavier, more luxurious SL and Platinum trims, the three-cylinder Rogue could only manage 30 mpg city, 36 mpg highway, and 32 mpg combined.
In its most fuel-efficient layout (FWD, low trim), the four-cylinder Rogue tops out at 30 mpg combined, while the AWD Platinum model only gets 28 mpg combined.
Comparing like for like, the three-cylinder engine gets about 3 mpg more than the 2.5-liter inline-four. Whether that would be enough to make buyers consider the smaller engine is an interesting question to ponder. Either way, even if the three-cylinder eventually joins the range, it too will be fitted with a CVT transmission.
