Nissan Ariya | Road Test

Nissan’s Leaf was a breakthrough in electric cars, it had the biggest pick up by consumers and went on to sell quite well for the brand. We’ve been waiting a while for advances from Nissan in the EV world and now finally they’ve launched the Ariya.

BHP 214Electric / Auto
0-100 km/h in 7.4 secondsRoad Tax €120
Price: €48,995Boot space 468 litres

Nissan has integrated many hints for its Japanese heritage throughout the design of the car. The ambient LED lighting is inspired by traditional Japanese paper lanterns, a nice touch. The Ariya is up against the Skoda Enyaq iV, Tesla’s Model Y, Volvo’s C40, and the Irish Car of the Year 2021, Kia’s EV6. 

It’s a more performance oriented car (see our original on track test), and the Ariya’s 215bhp front-mounted electric motor delivers smooth acceleration boosted by 300Nm of torque. It can also relax when you want and moves its occupants along in near-silent serenity. Refinement is very good indeed, and while the suspension set-up is a little on the firm side, it’s comfortable for those who like soft but not French levels of soft suspension.

The Ariya’s range depends on which battery you choose. Both options come with a single electric motor over the front wheels as standard. There’s a choice between two batteries, and two or four-wheel drive versions. The four-wheel-drive ‘e-4orce’ variant is quick with a 0-100 km/h time of 5.7s. Acceleration isn’t particularly rapid by electric car standards from the 63 kw/h battery, but is nippier than most petrol or diesel cars at 7.5s. The cheaper 63kWh option has a 400 km range from full charge which is just above Skoda’s Enyaq iV 60.  The 87kWh battery version is more expensive and comes with a bigger range of 530 kms, not quite matching the Tesla Model Y Long Range but happily sitting alongside the EV6 and Enyaq 80.

The steering is light and makes low-speed maneuvers easy and there’s enough weight and precision to enjoy winding country roads. Despite the car’s high sides, there isn’t too much body lean through corners. And around town, the steering is light and makes maneuvering through windy streets easy. At higher speeds the steering weighs up heavily and requires more concentration.

The interior looks and feels more upmarket than the Nissan Leaf does, materials include wood-effect trim and while they’ve used touch-sensitive controls for the climate, we prefer physical dials and switches for air con and audio. The driving position gives great forward visibility, rear visibility is good too, so you shouldn’t struggle when looking out for traffic or parking which is assisted by the rear parking sensors, a rear-view camera and an auto-parking system which come as standard. 

All versions get Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone mirroring as standard, along with a wireless charging pad, ProPilot with Navi-Link and e-Pedal. There’s a 10-speaker Bose sound system available as an option on starting models which comes as standard higher up the range. There’s loads of space in the front. There’s a small cubby under the centre armrest, some cupholders and decent-sized door pockets, so plenty of storage. The glove box is small, but in some versions of the car, you can press a button and a tray slides from the dashboard. 

The Ariya’s floor is completely flat so the rear seat passengers have plenty of space. Nissan has maximised the space by using the Japanese concept of ‘Ma’ or ‘the mastery of empty space’. Rear headroom for six footers is acceptable, even with a pano roof. Leg room is extremely comfortable as we mentioned before, the floor is completely flat so all rear passengers have plenty of space. To gain even more space, the front and rear leg room in top of the line models can be adjusted by electronically sliding the centre console forwards and backwards. 

Four-wheel-drive Ariyas have a smaller boot than two-wheel-drive versions. All versions have 60/40 split-folding rear seats and a powered tailgate. There’s underfloor storage for charging cables but there’s no space available under the front bonnet for small bags and such. At 466 litres, the boot’s volume is just about sufficient but in general there’s plenty of storage, including an extra lidded tray on the centre console.

There’s lots of equipment as standard including dual-zone climate control, a 360-degree parking camera, heated front seats, LED headlights and a heat pump (for more efficient warming of the interior), there’s plenty of standard safety kit too. 

The infotainment operating system has a responsive screen with lots of standard features, including Android Auto/Apple CarPlay smartphone mirroring, built-in sat nav (handy for those 4G dead zones), Amazon Alexa and Google integration, wireless phone-charging and a six-speaker sound system. If you can stretch to the top-spec model it comes with a 10-speaker Bose system. 

The Ariya can charge at up to 130kW, so it’s not as fast as some alternatives. You can still top  up the battery from 10-80% in 35 minutes if you find a suitable DC rapid charger.. At home, a 7kW charger will take 14 hours to go from 0-100% capacity.

Entry-level trim comes well stocked with standard equipment although adding all the bells and whistles really increases the price to premium levels.