Nissan Qashqai N-Design: Nice update, shame about the price

I’m not sure I’m ready for the idea of a $54,365 Nissan Qashqai.

Yes, this is the flagship N-Design version of the updated 2025 car, and it features the clever e-POWER hybrid engine, but that’s some serious wedge to fork over for what remains a compact crossover.

The headline news is that the car has been thoroughly refreshed inside and out, with a new trim structure across the range, better tech inside the vehicle and those perennial complaints about servicing costs have also been addressed. Plus there’s that new industry-leading 10-year warranty that is sure to attract many buyers who realise what effect that will have on their new Nissan’s residual values a bit further down the track.

First impressions? There’s a lot going on with the styling. Normally that’s no good thing, a case of designers over-egging the pudding, but it seems to work here. Whether it’s the busy design of the 20-inch (yes, really) wheels, the scaly grille or the revised front and rear lights, it gives a fresh look to a model introduced as recently as 2022. The car’s stance is purposeful and there’s a muscular shoulder line which gives it an impression of extreme rake.

The quality of the materials inside has improved, with the N-Design being liberally swathed in Alcantara and leather. There’s also quite a bit of piano black plastic which looks great until it becomes smudged and scratched. It’s time car manufacturers looked for a more durable alternative. A 12.3-inch centre screen features wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and there’s also the backup of native sat-nav should your phone go on the fritz. The tile-based interface isn’t the most intuitive, but it seems robust.

The steering wheel is particularly slick, with a soft stitched leather wrap. The seats are embossed and feature white piping and stitching, and there’s a wireless phone charger, which is a bit of a tight squeeze for larger handsets.

The hybrid system is such that the 1.5-litre petrol engine powers an e-motor that drives the front wheels. Mechanical refinement is extremely good, to the extent that you notice tyre noise which would usually be muted by the sound of the engine. The brake pedal handover from friction to re-gen braking is also very slickly handled, but I feel that, in this variant at least, the ride quality is writing cheques that the handling can’t cash. That’s in part due to the big alloy wheels and the 235/45 R20 Michelin Primacy4 tyres, which let you know unambiguously exactly how coarse the chip is that you’re driving on.

One area where we’ve had mixed feelings about Nissan’s e-POWER system insofar as it sounds odd (the revs don’t always build and decay in tune with acceleration and deceleration) is that the efficiency figures have typically failed to match up to the likes of Toyota and Honda hybrids. The former point still stands, but on a mixed route of country back roads, freeways and suburban routes, I averaged 4.6L/100km which is right up there with the best in class.

As a demonstrator of what the updated Qashqai is all about, the N-Design impresses, although I’d be inclined to look at the other end of the range in search of value. The entry-level Qashqai ST runs on 17-inch alloy wheels for a more supple ride and starts at just $32,665. It seems a more convincing proposition, despite the fact that it misses out on the e-POWER hybrid tech. You’ll need to step up to the $52,365 Ti-L e-POWER model for that, which, given that Toyota will happily sell you a hybrid RAV4 for just over $42k, seems a bit of a miss.

The updates have made a good compact crossover more attractive still, but until Nissan prices its hybrid tech a bit more generously, it can’t hope to erode the market share of its key rivals in any meaningful manner. That seems a genuine shame.

Specifications

This article appeared in the April issue of Wheels magazine.