New Nissan Qashqai to get Range Extender e-Power and Mitsubishi Plug-in Hybrid options

The Nissan IMQ Concept (pictured) points towards the next generation Qashqai

The next generation Nissan Qashqai, expected to arrive later next year, will come with two AFV powertrains, but there won’t be an electric Qashqai.

Nissan are a little beleaguered at the moment and struggling make the sort of sales in the UK and Europe they are used to.

So the arrival of a new Nissan Qashqai next year is a big deal; as Nissan’s most successful offering the new Qashqai has to hit the ground running and make its mark against much stronger competition than it faced initially in the current generation.

The next generation Qashqai is expected to arrive later next year (2020) and be built on an updated version of the CMF Platform, but there won’t be an electric Qashqai as that will fall to a new range of electric SUVs from Nissan, previewed by the Nissan Ariya Concept.

Instead, the new Qashqai (perhaps previewed by the recent Nissan IMQ Concept) will offer two hybrid powertrains, although there’s no certainty they will both be on offer in all markets.

Speaking to Auto Express, Nissan VP Europe Ponz Pandikuthira, confirmed there would be no electric Qashqai as that would need a completely new platform, so the Qashqai will instead rely on hybrid technology already available at Nissan.

That means a Range Extender Nissan e-Power powetrain which uses a petrol engine to work as a generator to charge a battery which drives the electric motor, although whether that will work in the UK and Europe with its higher motorway speeds – where a Range Extender is less efficient – isn’t clear.

The other hybrid option will be the plug-in hybrid powertrain from the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, even though Nissan see plug-in hybrids a short term solution to electrification ahead of EV batteries becoming cheaper and more energy dense.

Pandikuthira said:

We’re not pursuing a big plug-in hybrid strategy. On some car lines we’ll try it out, but the business case for plug-in hybrids is not very good. For us, it’s a bridge technology for the next two to four years until battery costs drop to the point where the variable costs of making full EVs prevail.

It’s also speculated that Nissan will drop diesel-engine Qashqais when the new model arrives.