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The Nissan Ariya is a mid-sized five-door SUV, and the Japanese manufacturer’s first attempt at a large all-electric (EV) family car. After a year of delays due to supply shortages, the Ariya arrived in the UK in the middle of 2022.
Customers can choose from two battery grades – the standard 63kWh unit or the ‘extended range’ 87kWh battery, which Nissan promises can travel 250 miles and 329 miles respectively from full charge. While entry-level models use a single 160kW electric motor to power the front wheels, the faster range-topping variant is all-wheel drive, with a motor in the front and the back.
Nissan’s first big EV launch since the introduction of the current-generation Nissan Leaf in 2018, the Ariya has been well-received by the British motoring media so far – Auto Express describes the SUV as “a great leap in the right direction for Nissan” that Car says “looks set for a battle royal at the top-end of the class.”
“The Ariya is a great-looking and well-equipped electric family SUV”, Carwow explains, “but its boot is a bit on the small side and other EVs have better charging capabilities.”
Reviewers agree that the Nissan is well-equipped and refined inside, but a few comment that the Ariya might struggle to stand out from a very competitive all-electric SUV class, as it doesn’t bring anything new to the table. “It’s no better than anything that’s already been out there for a while”, The Sun comments, adding that the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6 are better choices.
Pricing is another frequently raised issue – the entry-level Ariya is around £3,000 more expensive than the cheapest version of the Skoda Enyaq, which is the current class-leader.
That said, Driving Electric argues that the Ariya is still a great all-electric option worthy of consideration. “This is by no means the cheapest zero-emissions family car around, but it’s a premium-feeling product that gets loads of kit for the money.”
The Nissan Ariya is just one of many new electric family SUVs vying for your money and attention at the moment. We drove it at the European launch last summer and loved it, but we’ve now had a chance to spend a much longer time behind the wheel here in the UK. One year on, does it still impress?
After Nissan’s pioneering efforts with the Leaf more than a decade ago, you’d have expected the company to build on that success. But although a second-generation Leaf came along in 2017, it took until 2022 for Nissan to add a second electric car to its line-up (and we’re deliberately ignoring the fairly awful van-based e-NV200 people carrier).
Based on plenty of positive media reviews, the Ariya was awarded our Best Medium SUV in The Car Expert’s 2022 Car of the Year awards. It’s had a few trim tweaks since then, so we’ve had a longer UK review to really get under the skin and see what it’s like to live with.
Last year, we said that the Nissan Ariya “looks and feels like a Nissan Qashqai from the future”, and that still holds. It’s broadly similar in size (roomier in the cabin) but it definitely feels a generation ahead of the Qashqai.
The Ariya line-up has expanded since it was launched last year, with a new entry-level model and a new top-end model. Customers now get a choice of four trim levels (Engage, Advance, Evolve and Evolve+) and three powertrains, which are:
160kW motor, 63kWh battery, front-wheel drive
178kW motor, 87kWh battery, front-wheel drive
225kW motor, 87kWh battery, all-wheel drive
290kW motor, 87kWh battery, all-wheel drive
The entry-level Engage model is only available as a front-wheel drive model, while the headline Evolve+ version is only available with the all-wheel-drive powertrain (called e-4orce).
The version we spent a week with was the Evolve spec, with the 87kWh battery and front-wheel-drive motor.
If you’re looking for a plug-and-play family EV, you’ve come to the right place. For anyone looking at making a switch from petrol or diesel to electric power, this is a fantastic starting point.
Despite car company marketing efforts, the reality is that there is inevitably a learning curve that comes with switching to an EV – your mindset has to reset when it comes to refuelling vs. recharging and the way that affects how you use the car. So the last thing you want is added complexity of trying to fathom how the various functions of the car all work as well. The Ariya is dead easy to live with, which makes that jump much easier.
There are cheaper alternatives – the MG 5 estate makes every other electric family car look expensive – and there are similarly priced EVs that give you more kit or more space for the money, like the Skoda Enyaq. There are also other EVs that give you better driving range, like the Tesla Model Y.
If price, space or 350-odd miles of range are top priorities for you, there are better options out there. The Ariya is pretty good in most areas, but doesn’t really excel in any one department.
Unlike most modern cars, which tend to be heavily and aggressive overstyled, the Nissan Ariya is a welcome contrast. Its exterior styling is clean and minimalist, without heavy-handed slashes or fake air vents everywhere.
However, the design does tend to look best in brighter metallic colours, especially with the contrasting black roof and mirrors. Our car was Blue Pearl, which looked fairly dull and dreary, especially paired with dark grey wheels. It looked nothing like the blue on the website, so best check out cars in the metal at your local Nissan dealer before making your choice.
The interior styling follows a similar theme, with a Scandi-style sleek and pared-back look. The upholstery was black leather, while the (fake) matt woodgrain looked refreshingly stylish and modern – not something you usually associate with woodgrain trims on cars.
The stand-out design elements in the cabin are two sets of touch controls embedded into the woodgrain trim, the climate control buttons on the dashboard and some additional buttons in the centre console. They’re no better than normal touchscreen controls, which means they’re not as good as physical buttons for using on the move, but they look cool
Once we’ve got the first impressions out of the way, it’s time to look a bit harder at exactly what you’re getting for your money with the Nissan Ariya.
The line-up kicks off with the 160kW Engage with the smaller 63kW battery for just under £40K. According to official lab tests, this will give you a battery range of 250 miles, so you can expect 200+ miles in most real-world driving conditions. Advance trim is about £3.5K more at just over £43K on-road, and from there you can spend £4K more (just over £47K) for the Evolve version.
To go a bit quicker and further, the 178kW motor with the larger 87kW adds £5K to each of the above models. This gives an official battery range of 310 miles, which we found worked out to about 250-ish miles in real-world driving.
The previous top-spec power unit is a 225kW electric motor in all-wheel drive with the 87kW battery, This adds a bit less than £3K to Advance and Evolve models (not available for the base-spec Engage model). Finally, there’s a new flagship Evolve+ version that’s priced at £59K (a £4K premium over the Evolve). This one gets a hefty performance upgrade, with 290kW on tap, driving through all four wheels and powered by the 87kWh battery.
Our car was the second-to-top-level Evolve, which has pretty much all the mod-cons you could want in a family car and then some. You get a panoramic glass sunroof, adaptive high beam LED headlights, a Bose sound system, head-up display, adaptive cruise control with lane-keeping assistance (which Nissan calls ProPilot), all the usual driver assistance safety systems and 360-degree parking cameras, ventilated front seats and heated (but not ventilated) rear seats, and memory for your seats/steering wheel/mirrors/infotainment settings and even the centre console, which is electrically adjustable (we’ll get back to that bit shortly).
We like: Good equipment levels. All the key safety kit is standard on all models.
We don’t like: Top-spec Evolve+ looks pricey at £60K compared to entry-level £40K model
