The Nissan Ariya has been on sale overseas for four years already, but it’s new for us here in Australia. Photo: James Coleman.
You’d think that for a company that gave us one of the first EVs in the country, they’d be very good at it.
About 15 years since they dropped the first Leaf – the world’s first mass-market electric vehicle selling more than one million globally – Nissan has created an all new EV, called the Ariya (however that’s best pronounced). And I wanted to love it.
For starters, it looks like a Christmas beetle, especially in the lovely Akatsuki Copper on my test example. It makes what could be the same hunched bubble shape of every other mid-size electric SUV out there interesting. Squint slightly and the back end has shades of Lexus too.
This continues inside too. It’s like sitting inside a Pan Pacific hotel lobby. All is minimalist and suede and wood. Textured sections on the doors and under the dash are said to illuminate like Japanese lanterns. And that entire centre stack can be electronically rolled backwards and forwards at the push of a button – for some reason. It’s very roomy too.
Coming out of a Kia, I also greatly appreciated not being chimed at for everything. All the usual modern safety tech is here, but it’s subdued and polite.
There are four Ariya models, broadly separated by whether they have two electric motors or one – for front or all wheel drive – and a 63 kWh or 87 kWh battery.
At least in mine, the dual-motor, all-wheel-drive Evolve, range is a very useful 487 km. And that’s not an optimistic figure – even when pushing 110 km/h on the Federal Highway, it can easily do Canberra-Sydney with charge for spare.
But, there’s no other way to put this – it costs $75K when all is said and done.
There’s the cheaper Engage model, from about $56K, when you’re on cloth seats you have to adjust manually, but then it goes up to about $60K for the Advance, and then $64K for the Advance+.
Granted, you get the Nissan name. And it’s bang on par with Kia’s EV5. But I can’t help but feel it’s a problem when a fully loaded Chinese EV costs $50K, and a Tesla not much more. All with a better drive.
There’s no doubt some clever stuff is going on underneath. The e-4ORCE badge on the back might give you a stroke to read, but it really means that when cornering, the Ariya’s brain is constantly shuffling power between the wheels to “faithfully trace the driver’s intended line”.
But after only one family excursion, my wife begged me to leave the Nissan at home the next time and take our car instead – she “felt sick”.
Admittedly, she’s also heavily pregnant, but I knew what she meant. The suspension is terrible. It feels like you’re towing a trailer – bucking and tugging like the car is moving in two parts, connected in much the same way as syllables in the South African accent.
You get used to it, but the steering is pretty lifeless and the brake pedal spongey too. Apparently, it can do 0-100 km/h in 5.6 seconds, but the punch wasn’t much harder than a typical internal-combustion powered SUV. But I like that – you’d definitely be sick if it was any faster.
For a company that’s had so long to perfect the EV recipe, then, the Ariya was a bit of a disappointment. Even if it’s a beautifully made one.
The Akatsuki Copper colour is exclusive to the Evolve model. Photo: James Coleman.
2026 Nissan Ariya Evolve e-4ORCE
- $71,840 (plus driveaway costs)
- Two electric motors, 160 kW front, 160 kW rear, 600 Nm combined
- All-wheel drive (AWD)
- 0-100 km/h in 5.6 seconds
- 487 km claimed range
- 10-year, 300,000 km warranty (8-year, 160,000 km battery warranty)
- 5-star ANCAP safety rating
Thanks to Nissan Australia for providing this car for testing. Region has no commercial arrangement with Nissan Australia.
Original Article published by James Coleman on Region Canberra.
