Tested: Nissan Ariya – Here are some weird solutions

This article was first published in Finansavisen engine.

Vehicle test: So here it is. finally. The much-talked-about SUV, but electric-vehicle-hungry Norwegians haven’t seen much of it yet.

In the summer of the last two years, the Nissan Ariya was shown for the first time, then showed up in the capital in February last year before returning again for a visit to Oslo a year later. However, deliveries have been delayed and, at the time of writing, only 160 units have been registered in Norway.

Wizard

It is unfortunate that the fully engineered car is almost outdated before customers can get it out of the shops. The consolation is that the Ariya still pretends to be an alluring electric car, and there are several reasons for that.

An important advantage of this SUV is that you sit high. Emerging people with a solid back, cell phone holders in their belts, ergonomically correct shoes and checkered shirts can definitely feel at home here.

It’s smart to have the doors extend all the way to the bottom of the car, so that the pant legs don’t press into what would otherwise be the car’s exposed ducts. And it’s nice to get a good overview from the two front seats and the air conditioning buttons are easily accessible. It’s integrated into the panel right in front of you and relies on so-called haptic feedback, which is an interesting detail.

The test car costs NOK 536,000, which means some VAT is likely to be paid if the car is available in 2023. Photo: Håkon Sæbø / Finansavisen

The immediate feel inside is good, and you can let yourself be charmed by the center console, which is electrically adjusted back and forth with a regular, physical button. The same applies to the “glove box”, which also slides with the help of an electric drive at your disposal.

The interior feels more luxurious than most Nissan customers are accustomed to, which is a smart move when a fully-equipped vehicle quickly costs over NOK 500,000 before any taxes.

The luggage compartment swallows 468 liters, but if you choose the version with all-wheel drive and an extra drive in the rear, it shrinks to 415 liters. picture: Photo: Håkon Sæbø / Finansavisen

Shipping and range of the Nissan Ariya

The sound comes when the doors close and open with a reassuring touch of quality. The Nissan Ariya doesn’t look too bad from the outside with its modern lines. That this is some kind of all-wheel-drive coupe is appropriate to scare the most pragmatic of us, but maybe not so much. The space here is comparable to that of competitors, but, unfortunately for Nissan, there are now too many of them.

If you’re considering the Ariya, the BMW iX1, Ford Mustang Mach-E, Tesla Model Y, Volkswagen ID.5, Skoda Enyaq Coupé, and Audi Q4 e-tron can also be listed. The amount of Chinese electric cars is also about to become seriously long, and competitors from South Korea distinguish themselves, among other things, with excellent charging speeds. There are still many good reasons to check out the Kia EV6 and Hyundai Ioniq 5.

The buttons are located so that you can find them easily. It’s a feature you shouldn’t always take for granted in today’s electric car. Photo: Håkon Sæbø / Finansavisen

of the most comfortable

With so many options, it’s nice that the Ariya stands out as one of the more comfortable in this class. Immediately you feel that the car is heavy, but the Japanese engineers still manage to wrap it in attractive softness. The steering comes close to artificial light, but the Sport program makes it heavier at the wheel without improving feedback. It can’t claim to be overtly sporty either, but not everyone is hungry for such features in an electric car to commute and rush into the cabin.

The test car didn’t have all-wheel drive, as the vast majority of Ariya customers would like, but it did have the largest battery at 87 kWh. According to Nissan, this should give a range of 533 km, but as with most electric cars, range gets worse when fall weather hits and the temperature drops.

Nissan Ariya is a good replacement for cars like Tesla Model Y, Volkswagen ID.4, ID.5 Ford Mustang Mach-e and quite a few others. Photo: Håkon Sæbø / Finansavisen

high consumption

Average consumption over a three-hour test ride ended up at 20.7 kWh/100km, which was higher than expected. Admittedly, there were many elements of highway driving where the battery drained faster than it did during quiet country driving.

The Ariya should be able to fast charge at a maximum of 130kW, but we saw little of this when the car was connected to a 225kW charger with 9 percent left on the battery. Output was fairly stable at just over 100 kW, but it dropped to around 80 kW before the battery reached 80 percent. The charging session took a total of 36 minutes.

With a solid 238 horsepower and 0 to 100 in 7.6 seconds, the test car is quick enough, and goes even faster if you opt for the all-wheel-drive version with 301 horsepower and 600 Nm. This model is called the Ariya e-4orche and, funnily enough, it will sprint from 0 to 100 km/h in just 5.7 seconds.

The more expensive Ariya model with front-wheel drive and a 63-kWh battery starts at NOK 450,000, but the Evolve equipment package costs an extra NOK 30,000. Then the tech package with a Bose stereo system and head-up display is also included, for which you have to pay 18,000 NOK. The test car cost NOK 496,000 and finished at NOK 560,000 when the paint and interior were added. The top-of-the-line all-wheel-drive version costs around NOK 600,000 if you want most of the equipment, and on top of that there’s no tax.

The Nissan Ariya is a big step up from what Norwegians like to associate with the Japanese auto brand. Photo: Håkon Sæbø / Finansavisen

That’s bad about Arya

The Nissan Ariya scores many “big points” when it comes to comfort, seating position and interior. It becomes clear that the car is aimed at those with high requirements for such features, but less so for the tech-savvy, when considering the infotainment system. Here are two 12.3-inch screens “glued together” into one, which many in the industry have found to be a good idea.

Unfortunately, the screens have uncanny similarities to the graphics on the Commodore Amiga 500 – which would have been really impressive if we were in 1992, but today seems a bit geeky.

Here, Nissan should see itself surpassed by Tesla and not least by the Chinese brand Nio, which also bets on sharp and eye-catching graphics.

Another annoyance is that Apple CarPlay didn’t work well and the Bluetooth connection was also unstable. It is weak when the Japanese take so much time to get the car on the market.

Physical volume button, well placed and easy to operate. This is how Norwegian car buyers will like it. The A/C buttons are also easy to operate, and we apologize for the so-called tactile feedback. Photo: Håkon Sæbø / Finansavisen

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conclusion

With no attractive SUV to offer recently, Nissan sales in Norway have plummeted. So far this year, they’re close to 40 percent behind in 2021, according to the Road Traffic Information Board (OFV), which must be painful for many Nissan dealerships across the country.

Fortunately, the Nissan Ariya is quiet, directional, comfortable and has an interesting interior that you will love. It’s not completely flawless, exciting to drive or remarkably cheap, but for existing Nissan customers it will feel like a significant step anyway.