Nissan questions Toyota RAV4 economy
Japanese brand argues its own X-TRAIL e-POWER numbers are legitimateNissan has openly questioned the fuel consumption claims of Australia’s top-selling SUV and most popular hybrid, the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid.
It says its rival Japanese brand’s official efficiency claims of as low as 4.7L/100km are unachievable based on independent media testing.
But at the same time Nissan believes the fuel economy claims of its own e-POWER equipped QASHQAI and X-TRAIL SUVs are legitimate.
The 2023 Nissan X-TRAIL e-POWER with e-4ORCE dual-motor all-wheel drive is now on sale in Australia in two grades with identical 6.1L/100km combined fuel consumption claims.
All-wheel drive version of the RAV4 claim 4.8L/100km on the ADR combined cycle, while the front-wheel drive version averages 4.7L/100km.
The X-TRAIL e-POWER is only sold as an AWD, while the QASHQAI e-POWER will be front-wheel drive when arrives here.
Although it is not expected on sale until the last quarter of 2023, the QASHQAI e-POWER’s official ADR consumption claim is already public at 5.2L/100km for both the combined and urban tests.
The Toyota and Nissan hybrid systems are significantly different. The RAV’s system is series parallel with the capability for the petrol engine to drive the wheels, while the X-TRAIL’s system is series only.
That means the petrol engine only charges the high-voltage battery. Because only the e-motors drive the wheels, Nissan says the X-TRAIL and QASHQAI e-POWER models have an advantage because they deliver a more EV-like experience.
Speaking at last week’s launch of the Nissan X-TRAIL e-POWER hybrid, Nissan product specialist Aleksandar Pecanac took aim at the RAV4 Hybrid’s fuel economy.
“I think with fuel economy it’s a tricky one and we’ll leave that in your hands to do real-world testing,” he told the assembled media.
“I know from a lot of the media articles I’ve seen for RAV4 Hybrid you can’t get anywhere near 4.8 [litres per 100km] and a lot of the articles we have seen for QASHQAI [e-POWER] in Europe, they are getting very close to the quoted figure.
“We expect a similar result for X-TRAIL.”
“We look forward to seeing them [independent media fuel consumption tests of the X-TRAIL e-POWER].”
Well, carsales can give him one result straight-up. A drive from Brisbane to Coffs Harbour and back resulted in a 6.7L/100km average over more than 700km.
Admittedly this was predominantly open-road cruising rather than in the city, where hybrids do their best work.
In more strenuous country conditions during the launch, the X-TRAIL e-POWER delivered 7.4L/100km.
A recent carsales road test of a 2WD Toyota RAV4 XSE hybrid achieved 6.2L/100km.
According to ADR numbers, the urban fuel consumption claims for the RAV4 hybrid are 4.8L/100 (FWD) and 5.0L/100km (AWD). The X-TRAIL e-POWER claims 6.5L/100km.
Related: EV option coming for Nissan JUKE, QASHQAI and X-TRAIL
Related: More new Nissan models coming
Related: Toyota RAV4 XSE 2WD Hybrid 2022 Review
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