Nissan argues its X-TRAIL e-POWER numbers are legitimate, casting aspersions on Toyota’s popular hybrid
Nissan has openly questioned the fuel consumption claims of Australia’s top-selling SUV and most popular hybrid, the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid.
It says its rival Japanese brand’s official efficiency claims of as low as 4.7L/100km are unachievable based on independent media testing.
Related: Who’s the biggest carmaker in the world? Toyota, that’s who
But at the same time, Nissan believes the fuel economy claims of its own e-POWER-equipped QASHQAI and X-TRAIL SUVs are legitimate.
The 2023 Nissan X-TRAIL e-POWER with e-4ORCE dual-motor all-wheel drive is now on sale in Australia in two grades with identical 6.1L/100km combined fuel consumption claims.
All-wheel drive versions of the RAV4 claim 4.8L/100km on the ADR combined cycle, while the front-wheel drive version averages 4.7L/100km.
The X-TRAIL e-POWER is only sold as an AWD, while the QASHQAI e-POWER will be front-wheel drive when arrives here.
Although it is not expected on sale until the last quarter of 2023, the QASHQAI e-POWER’s official ADR consumption claim is already public at 5.2L/100km for both the combined and urban tests.
The Toyota and Nissan hybrid systems are significantly different. The RAV’s system is series-parallel with the capability for the petrol engine to drive the wheels, while the X-TRAIL’s system is series-only.
That means the petrol engine only charges the high-voltage battery. Because only the e-motors drive the wheels, Nissan says the X-TRAIL and QASHQAI e-POWER models have an advantage because they deliver a more EV-like experience.
Speaking at last week’s launch of the Nissan X-TRAIL e-POWER hybrid, Nissan product specialist Aleksandar Pecanac took aim at the RAV4 Hybrid’s fuel economy.
“I think with fuel economy it’s a tricky one and we’ll leave that in your hands to do real-world testing,” he told the assembled media.
“I know from a lot of the media articles I’ve seen for RAV4 Hybrid you can’t get anywhere near 4.8 [litres per 100km] and a lot of the articles we have seen for QASHQAI [e-POWER] in Europe, they are getting very close to the quoted figure.
“We expect a similar result for X-TRAIL.”
“We look forward to seeing them [independent media fuel consumption tests of the X-TRAIL e-POWER].”
Well, carsales can give him one result straight-up. A drive from Brisbane to Coffs Harbour and back resulted in a 6.7L/100km average over more than 700km.
Admittedly this was predominantly open-road cruising rather than in the city, where hybrids do their best work.
In more strenuous country conditions during the launch, the X-TRAIL e-POWER delivered 7.4L/100km.
A recent carsales road test of a 2WD Toyota RAV4 XSE hybrid achieved 6.2L/100km.
According to ADR numbers, the urban fuel consumption claims for the RAV4 hybrid are 4.8L/100 (FWD) and 5.0L/100km (AWD). The X-TRAIL e-POWER claims 6.5L/100km.
