Nissan Ariya to be joined by larger EV model: report

The Nissan Ariya (pictured) will be joined in Nissan’s EV model line-up by an even larger model

With the Nissan Leaf having been joined by the Ariya in the brand’s fully electric model line-up, a third is due to arrive in the form of a large SUV, Autocar reports, following hints from Nissan head of electric passenger cars and infrastructure, Helen Perry.

“The platform will be used for other cars in the future. The C-SUV and D-SUV segments are due to grow about 300% over the next three years, so we will look to use the platform in growth segments in the next few years,” Perry said. Nissan had earlier said that 50% of its model line-up will be electrified by 2023, however Perry had not revealed if the large electric SUV will arrive by then.

“It all depends on the customer. If we’d bought Ariya to market earlier, I’m not sure customers would have been ready for it. Technology wouldn’t have been as up to date as it will be at launch. And while Covid-19 has been terrible, it has made customers review what is important – for example, emissions,” she added.

While the Leaf employs the CHAdeMO charger connection, the decision to go with CCS was made in order for the Ariya to be as widely used as possible

At launch, the Ariya is offered with a selection of battery and driveline choices, starting with a 63 kWh battery pack, 215 hp and 300 Nm in rear-wheel-drive guise, offering 450 km of range. The most potent is the 87 kWh battery option feeding a twin-motor setup that produces 388 hp and 600 Nm of torque. This top variant gets 580 km on a single charge, and can do 0-100 km/h in 5.1 seconds.

The Ariya’s battery range is crucial in bringing customers on board, said Perry, while consumer usage patterns also dictated the decision to trade the CHAdeMO charger connection as used in the Leaf for the more widely available CCS setup.

“We expect the Ariya to be the first car in a household, whereas the Leaf is typically a second car. The choice we’ve made for the Ariya is based on the way the customer will use the car. We’ve put in a bigger battery to have as little range anxiety as possible, hitting the 500 km mark, so it’s important if people are using it to travel [long distances] that they have access to the widest options for quick charging,” she said.

It isn’t quite the do-it-all solution, however, as CCS does not yet support vehicle-to-grid charging as CHAdeMO does, and Nissan is still keen to further develop the latter. “We are not abandoning Chademo, (and) we will continue to have it on the Leaf and e-NV200,” said Perry, adding that Nissan is at the early stages of research for CCS to have this capability. Meanwhile, the CHAdeMO protocol will still be used for the Ariya in Japan.

GALLERY: Nissan Ariya

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