Cut-price Nissan X-TRAIL e-POWER 2WD due this year

Nissan Australia has confirmed it will broaden its updated X-TRAIL portfolio with the introduction of front-wheel drive e-POWER variants by the end of the year. The move comes as consumer preferences continue to swing in favour of hybrid powertrains and echoes the strategies of other brands like Toyota, Hyundai and Kia.

Speaking to carsales this afternoon at the national launch of the D27 Navara, departing Nissan Oceania managing director Andrew Humberstone said e-POWER still had an important role to play in the brand’s strategic direction and even implied the plugless technology could find its way across the entire X-TRAIL line-up.

“If you look at X-TRAIL, we’re looking to bring in a two-wheel drive X-TRAIL [hybrid] in as well – we’re also looking at e-POWER technology across that line-up,” he said when quizzed on where Nissan’s emerging plug-in hybrid and EV synergies with Chinese partner Dongfeng would leave e-POWER.

While Humberstone stopped short of confirming an all-e-POWER X-TRAIL line-up, the move can’t be ruled out given the smaller QASHQAI was made hybrid-only earlier this year.

The front-drive X-TRAIL e-POWER however packs a slightly stronger punch than its compact cousin, with outputs from the singular e-motor – mounted to the front axle – being 150kW/330Nm, compared with the all-wheel drive dual-motor’s combined 157kW/525Nm.

The result is obviously slightly less outright performance and inferior grip on slippery and loose surfaces, but the upsides are improved efficiency, to the tune of 0.5L/100km (WLTP) for European models, and inevitably lower asking prices.

Exactly how much cheaper the front-drive variants end up being remains to be seen, it likely won’t be more than a couple of grand seeing as the existing e-4ORCE variants carry a $3000-$4200 premium over their all-paw petrol counterparts.

According to Nissan Oceania communications boss Steve Coughlan, the introduction of two-wheel drive X-TRAIL e-POWERs would grant Nissan access to roughly 17 per cent of the hybrid medium SUV market it has thus far not been present in.

“We don’t talk to those [consumers] because we have an X-TRAIL [e-POWER] that’s exclusively all-wheel drive, but with X-TRAIL [e-POWER] launching with a 4x2, we would increase the appeal of the model.”

The X-TRAIL is the 11th-best-selling mainstream medium SUV on the market so far this year, with 1323 examples registered as of the end of February – a long way off the leading Mazda CX-5 (4388), Mitsubishi Outlander (4045) and Hyundai Tucson (3434), not to mention Chinese players like the BYD Sealion 6 (2498) and GWM Haval H6 (2179).

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