Louth Motoring: It’s electric, but not as we know it

We get it, there is an all-out assault to get us to move to cars that are electrically driven.

Whatever your views on climate change or global warming (not so applicable to our recent summer weather is it?) cars that use petrol or diesel have been found guilty by the court of carbon dioxide.

Car companies have reacted in many ways, some fast and some slow, and started to package electric cars to tempt us.

For some reason full electric was a little too unpalatable to buyers as a first step so they were gradually introduced to the volts and amps with a plug-in hybrid that was seen and a transition arrangement.

Toyota stuck mainly to hybrid cars that were “self-powered” to claim some EV kudos.

Some cars had electric motors that propelled the wheels and some that assisted the main engine. Some even offered mild hybrid, desperate to express their climate awareness.

We have pretty much accepted that full electric is a car that most of us can live with albeit they are, and remain, pricey.

So, it was quite a surprise when Nissan launched their e-POWER range of cars/engines – tested here first in the X-Trail. Why?

Well Nissan, who were pioneers with the all-electric Leaf, have a new tack. e-POWER cars have electric motors that drive the wheels for the full electric experience.

Nothing new there, so what is?

Well to charge the battery that powers the electric motors, which drive the wheels, Nissan have a petrol engine that powers a generator that charges the battery that… you get the picture.

The battery in this case is a small 2.1kWh one, so weight is reduced, but that means the energy demanded by the electric motor must be produced by the petrol engine and supplied to the battery but not stored in it as it is used immediately.

Drivers who get to drive electric cars are attracted to the instant torque and power that an electric motor brings.

You really feel that you have cheated the system by getting an enormously powerful car without having to part with the money for an exotic car that can deliver the same performance only using petrol.

So, buyers can get the full electric car experience without the need to charge up, you still have to go to the petrol station mind, ban range/charging anxiety and virtue signal they are driving an electric car.

Nissan have dulled the sound down on the 3-cylinder, 1.5l petrol engine fitted to replicate the electric car driving experience in terms of noise reduction with one peculiarity.

When you press the accelerator the sound you hear is of a high revving engine and what you’d expect a petrol engine to do.

So, they have kept that conventional engine effect for when you accelerate and the car sounds like how a petrol engine sports car behaves but has an electric motor.

It’s the equivalent of us all buying record players again as we love that entire process of listening to our favourite song as opposed to streaming.

I thought it was a bit gimmicky but after a few days you expect it, forget the electric experience and think you are driving an exceptionally smooth and fast petrol engined car.

That, at length I admit, is how the car gets moving. So, what’s it like when it is? I’d say Nissan have aimed to make the X-Trail feel like a premium offering and to my mind they have succeeded.

The whole experience is one of cushioned, airy luxury. Its road manners are smooth and refined and bumps are handled very well with only the worst that our roads can throw at it jarring.

Its looks are not unlike the Qashqai, with the retention of some X-Trail features.

It has come out of the shadow of the Qashqai at last and I’m sure buyers won’t be put off by anything the eye beholds.

Inside it’s very much like the Qashqai again, but bigger.

The dashboard arrangement is an excellent mix of touch and physical buttons but, at the risk of sounding contradictory, I’d love a bit more of the futuristic Nissan Ariya interior themes and features to have been used to enhance the premium suggestion the X-Trail projects.

It’s a seven-seater and at the very back I’d travel there for journeys up to an hour without much quibble.

The boot is 465l, there are three trim levels, 10 colours to choose from and 5 of them can have a black roof.

The entry model, costing €49,495, is 2WD with a 150kW motor at the front. My test model was 4WD, with 7-seats - Nissan asks for an extra €10k for that - that adds a second 100kW electric motor at the back.

That gave the model I was driving a combined power rating of 335HP, the same power you got from the legendary V8 Ford GT40 when talking purely petrol.

Granted it does not offer the same level of acceleration, but at 7s to get to 100km/h, it is only 2s behind.

I served my time as an electrician and during my training I learned that when you transition power from one form to another there are losses.

I count quite a few changes from petrol engine power to run a generator to charge a battery to turn an electric motor to power the wheels.

So, you’d be expecting quite an amount of losses but the whole effect was to deliver a “fuel” return of 7.4l/100kms which considering the performance ability of this car is quite a good return.

Nissan claims lower and if you remove new car driving exuberance from the equation, you might match them.

An e-POWER car has appeal for drivers who would not normally be able to experience electric power – those without off-street parking for instance.

Time will tell if the model works but Nissan in fairness to them, know a thing or two about getting people to drive electric cars.

The X-Trail won’t be the volume seller, that’ll be the Qashqai that I’ll review here next week and pick my choice from the two of them.