Nissan’s new hybrid is a U.S.-first that mixes EV driving, gas engine
Nissan’s logo is illuminated on the prototype of the new all-electric Ariya crossover. Nissan’s Z Proto performance car is reflected in the vehicle’s grille, while the redesigned Nissan Pathfinder SUV sits in the background.
Michael Wayland / CNBC
Nissan Motor It plans to introduce a new type of hybrid to the U.S. market that drives like a fully electric vehicle, but is powered by a conventional gas-powered engine—not propelled.
The new Nissan “e-Power” is called a series hybrid. It uses the engine as a generator to power the vehicle’s electric motors, which will then move the vehicle. It operates like emerging extended-range electric vehicles, or EREVs, but has a smaller battery and doesn’t require a plug.
It also differs from traditional hybrids like the Toyota Prius because the gas engine in these vehicles is used to propel the vehicle. The engine of the hybrid series only keeps the battery charged to power the electric motors in the vehicles.
Nissan’s e-Power hybrid system is scheduled to launch domestically later this year with a new version of its popular Rogue compact SUV.
According to officials, the timing of such a vehicle could be ideal for Nissan due to rising gasoline prices, slower-than-planned adoption of EVs and an expected increase in hybrid sales due to new entries.
After losing billions of dollars on electric vehicles, automakers like Nissan are turning to hybrid vehicles to meet customers’ fuel economy expectations and aid driving performance.
S&P Global Mobility expects hybrids to grow to 18.4% of new vehicle sales this year in the US; this rate was 12.6% last year and 7.3% in 2023. Meanwhile, it predicts new vehicle sales of pure electric vehicles will fall to 7.1% from last year’s 8%.
“This is a unique powertrain for the United States,” Kurt Rosolowsky, Nissan North America vehicle evaluation and testing engineer, said at a media briefing. “It’s an electric vehicle in terms of what powers the wheels, but there’s no plug and you fill it up with gas like you would in a regular car.”
series hybrids
Nissan and other automakers have used series hybrids elsewhere, particularly in Asia, but the companies have been reluctant to bring the vehicles to the U.S. because of consumer expectations for driving dynamics and power.
To address these concerns, Nissan said it developed a more powerful 1.5-liter, three-cylinder turbocharged engine specifically for the e-Power system, along with new packaging and other upgrades to satisfy American buyers.
“Turbo is only there to provide efficiency at higher speeds for the gas engine to deliver energy,” Rosolowsky said.
Destined for the US market, the e-Power is Nissan’s third-generation hybrid lineup since its launch in Japan in 2016. Since then, Nissan said it has sold more than 1.6 million vehicles worldwide with e-Power in nearly 70 countries.
“I think it’s going to be a really good system. I think the new Rogue will be very popular for Nissan when it launches later this year,” said Sam Abuelsamid, vice president of market research for communications and consulting firm Telemetri.
Abuelsamid said the only real disadvantage of the series hybrid is that it is less efficient at high speeds; Nissan is trying to overcome this problem with its new engine and battery size.
Use of e-Power
When driving the European version of the Nissan Rogue Sport sold with the ePower system in suburban Detroit, the car’s driving dynamics (especially rapid acceleration and regenerative braking) are terrific.
They come with the familiar sound of the engine revving, but without the slipping or chattering of transmission gears, and with much less noise, vibration and harshness, or NVH as the industry commonly calls it.
“With these fewer components, what makes it different is really the driving experience. You have less noise and less vibration,” Rosolowsky said.
Nissan e-Power logo
Courtesy of Nissan
Unlike traditional gas-powered vehicles, the e-Power system also does not require a conventional transmission to change gears or a driveshaft to power the wheels by transferring torque from the transmission to the differential.
Although the Rogue Sport is a smaller, forward-wheel-drive-only vehicle, it’s easy to see how the system would translate into the larger all-wheel-drive vehicle that the new Rogue with e-Power will become.
The lack of a plug, some engine noise and slight vibration may also be more familiar to drivers reluctant to embrace fully electric vehicles.
Although Nissan hasn’t announced details like pricing or fuel economy for the upcoming Rogue with e-Power, the Rogue Sport was getting more than 40 miles per gallon during heavy city driving, according to the vehicle’s MPG system.
current Nissan Rogue, Depending on the model, it can achieve more than 30 MPG, according to the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Nissan’s vehicles have historically been less fuel efficient than their larger Japanese rivals. honda engine And toyotamotor, the latter pioneered conventional hybrids with the Prius and continues to dominate the industry in the US
Nissan declined to discuss the possibility of expanding the e-Power system to other vehicles in the United States, but confirmed that the new system is modular and can work with many different engines.
“If we expand this to other vehicles, you could theoretically connect this to another gasoline engine of a different size and have more options for the e-Power system,” Rosolowsky said.
