New British-designed and built Qashqai

Designed in London, engineered in Cranfield, Bedfordshire, and to be made in one of the world’s most successful car plants – take a bow, Sunderland – this is an all-new Qashqai, the third-generation of a five-million seller and out to enhance its standing as the original compact crossover.

There’s new styling, a new platform, bigger wheels, an all-electrified powertrain line-up, a tad more space and more features. It’s grown a little, shed some weight (thanks to composite hatchback and aluminium doors) and grown plusher inside. But in essence it remains the high-riding “soft-roader” hatchback alternative it has always been.

You can blame the Qashqai’s success for this all-new version not being as individual looking as it was – the market is awash with cars like this today and some generic design cues, like the vertical slashes and “floating” roof, are inevitable. It’s still just about recognisable as a Qashqai – and certainly head-on the V grille makes sure you know it’s a Nissan – while coming across as more clean cut and crisp, with sharper lines and a stronger stance on its new 20-inch alloys.

Around an inch (25-35mm) has been added to wheelbase, length, width and height and it shows up in a little added leg- and head-room inside as well as a 50-litre larger boot. The doors open wider than they did and the powered tailgate operates hands-free.

As practical as ever then but also plusher with Nissan claiming a more premium quality inside and the top versions getting goodies like 3D diamond quilted Nappa leather and front seats with a massage function.

Inevitably there are touchscreens (either 9-inch or a 12.3-inch TFT display) for navigation, entertainment and vehicle settings, and there is also a new head-up display on offer. All the essential connectivity and phone compatibility is provided, including useful functions like wireless phone charging and over-the-air updates. Up to seven devices can now access the in-car wi-fi. In league with all this is a sprinkling of physical knobs, and the cabin doesn’t appear to have gone digitally overboard like some.

The cooking models get a new version of the little 1.3-litre turbo petrol engine available in the previous Qashqai since 2018, but updated and given a starter-generator. It’s a 12-volt system, not the more usual 48 volts, and while it facilitates stop-start and coasting functions, its contribution to performance is modest: a torque boost of 6Nm (4lb ft) for up to 20 seconds. It’s a very mild sort of mild hybrid.

Front-drive makes up all variants apart from a four-wheel-drive option with the more potent of the 1.3-litre’s two power options (138PS and 156PS, or 101kW and 115kW). This top Xtronic version also gets an automatic gearbox instead of the six-speed manual fitted to the rest of the 1.3-litre range. So obviously the seven-speed DCT dual-clutch job of the outgoing model? Er, no. Nissan has gone back to using the CVT stepless auto but here with the promise of enhanced performance.

There’s also a 1.5 Qashqai but it’s maybe not what you expect. The petrol engine is in the usual place but it is not connected to the wheels; they are powered instead by a whopping  187PS (140kW) electric motor. The combustion engine and the 154PS (113kW) it delivers are there merely to generate power to keep the lithium-ion battery pack charged up.

So it is really a range-extender hybrid. They were the future once and they apparently still are in Japan where Nissan has developed the idea into this new-gen system, called e-Power. It has been popular in Japanese-market versions of the Note but this will be the first time e-Power has been offered in Europe.

Available only with two-wheel-drive, this “significantly upgraded” e-Power system promises to appeal to people looking for the electric-car drive feeling – instant torque, seamless acceleration and the option of one-pedal driving – but who want the reassurance of a regular petrol car’s range. Plus, there’s nothing to plug in and you aren’t lugging around half a tonne of batteries everywhere you go.

But the proof of the Qashqai e-Power will be very much in the driving; no performance figures are so far quoted but with 330Nm (244lb ft) of pulling power from zero revs it should have an urgency to it, despite what will inevitably be more weight. Incidentally if you want Nissan’s full-on electric crossover experience you will have to wait for the new battery-electric Ariya due later this year.

Whatever the performance, the new Qashqai should offer the kind of drive that has made it the UK’s favourite crossover and consistently one of our 10 top selling cars.

Key to changes is the new platform which brings with it more chassis stiffness, less weight, a new steering system and revised suspension with a new multilink rear end when the 20-inch wheels are specified. There’s also the latest drive-assist and safety features of Nissan’s ProPilot system – though only on the top Xtronic model.

All bang on the money then? Appears so, though no prices yet. But this is now a massively competitive market (Nissan says the Qashqai has 26 direct rivals) and there can’t be much scope to change what is the current starting price of around £24k. That Xtronic four-wheel-drive auto on 20-inch wheels with multilink suspension, ProPilot and a quilted leather interior promises to be quite a lot more than that though…

Whatever the new model costs, with five million Qashqais made, three million of them expertly put together in the UK, there’s certainly a lot to play for as the original compact crossover faces its toughest test yet.