Nissan Ariya SUV (2022 - ) Electric review

On the road (or OTR) prices may not reflect the way most of us actually buy cars these days but do offer a sense of relative value, and the Nissan Ariya looks decent against the equivalent VW ID.4 or Skoda Enyaq, given it offers more performance for the same price. Like for like it’s also cheaper than a Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Nissan is confident residual values will be among the highest in its class, which will help keep the monthly finance figures competitive. As for any electric car, running costs have the potential to be significantly cheaper than a petrol, diesel or hybrid equivalent assuming you have facility to charge at home and most of your driving can be done without needing to use the relatively more expensive public charging network. And, while the Ariya is too expensive to qualify for what remains of the Government’s plug-in grant, you could potentially save more money through cheaper Benefit In Kind or by buying one through an electric car salary sacrifice scheme.

The Ariya is all new technology so it’s too early to say whether it will turn out to be reliable or not, though the fact Nissan has already sold over half a million electric cars should give you confidence it knows what it’s about. As a brand it tends to do well in reliability surveys and, if the three-year overall warranty is pretty standard, the EV specific components on the car are covered for five years while the battery is backed for eight years or 100,000 miles.

Full credit to Nissan here – where many other manufacturers insist you pick a higher trim grade or pay extra for the full package of driver and safety aids they all come as standard on every Ariya. Most use the word ‘Intelligent’ in their description and include tweaks to the steering to keep you in lane, emergency braking with cyclist and pedestrian detection front and rear, blind spot warnings and alerts for unseen traffic crossing behind you when reversing out of a parking space or driveway. Like many crossovers rear visibility is pretty poor so this is especially welcome. The cruise control is even linked into the navigation and can pre-emptively slow for known hazards, corners or changes in speed limit.

Although the Ariya is a global product sold all over the world Nissan has tuned models sold in Europe to suit local tastes and road conditions, including testing here in the UK to cope with our bumpy and potholed roads. Thankfully our initially favourable impressions from the smooth track used for our test drive carried over to when the going got rougher. Smooth, direct steering, lack of roll in the corners and general wafty sense of comfort continued even on broken surfaces. Combine this with the silent electric drive and excellent suppression of wind and road noise and the Ariya would appear to be exceptionally refined and relaxing to drive. Clever styling details like little humps each side of the bonnet help your spatial awareness as well, which takes the stress out of driving what is a relatively big car in tight spaces or on narrow roads. It’s also very spacious inside. While the wheelbase – the distance between the front and rear axles that dictates cabin space – is less than that of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 or Kia EV6 it still has plenty of room front and back, with all three rear seats usable thanks to the flat floor. Headroom in the back is about on the limit for a six-footer but in all other respects it feels roomy. The boot is big, if a little high off the ground and a tad shallow but there is additional space under the floor and you can remove panels and position them vertically to act as dividers to stop loose items sliding about. It’s worth noting all-wheel drive models lose a little boot space to the two-wheel drive versions if every last bit of boot space matters to you.

The Ariya’s four-step range structure is pretty simple and all but the base Advance version feature the bigger 87kWh battery and faster 22kW AC charging. Paired 12.3-inch screens for instruments and central display combine into a single glass panel across the dash and navigation and various connected services are all standard. If you’re an Apple user you can pair your phone wirelessly with CarPlay while Android users will need to plug in to unlock their apps. Efficient, heat pump driven air-con is also standard (a cost option on many rivals) but we’d be tempted to go one grade up to Evolve for the Bose stereo, heated rear seats, power operated sliding centre arm rest, panoramic roof and other feelgood features. While the minimalist interior looks cool and the materials feel of good quality we were less taken with the ‘haptic’ buttons embedded into the trim material – in theory they offer an ideal halfway house between physical switches and annoying screen controls but you still have to take your eyes off the road to use them and the reaction to your fingertip is sufficiently vague you end up repeatedly stabbing away unsure if anything is happening. There is, at least, a good old-fashioned volume knob!

Against the confusing array of battery, drive and power options on rivals like the VW ID.4 and Hyundai Ioniq 5 the Ariya offers a straightforward progression from the base, two-wheel drive model with the 63kWh powerpack to more potent versions with the bigger 87kWh set-up. The two-wheel drive version with the latter has the best range (over 300 miles) while the top two add e-4orce branded all-wheel drive and significantly improved power and performance. On paper that 242 horsepower, 87kWh, two-wheel drive Evolve looks the best balance, though the 217 horsepower Advance one we drove is more powerful than regular versions of the ID.4 or Skoda Enyaq and plenty brisk enough for most situations. There’s no adjustable re-gen as in some rivals but the switchable ‘e-Pedal’ technology from the Leaf offers smooth deceleration without needing to use the brakes, though you do need to take over to come to a complete halt so it’s not a true ‘one pedal’ system. Overall it’s a smooth, soothing and polished package, reflecting Nissan’s broad experience building electric vehicles.