Nissan's original crossover will have styling influenced by the Hi-cross and Resonance concept
The replacement for the popular Nissan Qashqai will have a more risqué, avant-garde design and a more sporting driving experience when it goes on sale next year.
The high-rise hatchback is set to receive more powerful engines and a more involving driving experience, Autocar has learned, while its styling is set to keep the car on the leading edge of crossover design.
“We’ve become known as ‘the crossover brand’ and we like that,” said Nissan product planning guru Andy Palmer. “To continue in the right direction, cars like the Qashqai have to be edgy, left-field, eccentric. We have to depart from the norm. A ‘Marmite’ car like the Juke is exactly what we need. A ‘me too’ car would be a disaster.”
Palmer references Nissan’s 2012 Hi-Cross concept and the 2013 Resonance concept as guides to how the new Qashqai will look — but he points out that both show cars were larger than the Qashqai will be.
“Like those concepts, it’ll have a very bold, aggressive, sharply cut look,” he said. “While Infinitis are becoming more natural and organic in their design language, Nissans will look more and more technical and mechanical.”
Autocar’s sources suggest that a slightly toned-down version of the Resonance concept’s headlamps and grille will appear on the Qashqai, as will oversized headlamps and eyebrow-like bonnet ridges. Wave-like body sides can also be expected and, further back, upswept C-pillars.
The Qashqai’s major dimensions will remain largely unchanged. Inside the car, though, material quality is set to jump up to near-premium levels, and a more eccentric fascia design will inject some much-needed interior richness.
“The current Qashqai was designed to be profitable with less than half of the volume we ended up getting for it,” a Nissan source said. “Economies of scale alone will allow us to do much more with the next one, without any increase in price.”
The Qashqai’s engine range is likely to include familiar Renault-developed diesel engines, but it’s the petrol side that’s likely to show the most change.
A turbocharged 1.2-litre powerplant will enter the range to replace the current car’s naturally aspirated 1.6-litre engine, and Nissan’s 1.6-litre DIG-T will also feature — in two states of tune.
The more powerful of those two flagship petrol engines will give the new Qashqai 215bhp — enough, Palmer suggests, for a warm performance version in the mould of the Juke Nismo.
“The Nismo treatment we’ve just given the Juke is very much an indicator of our thinking as part of the Qashqai line-up,” he says. “We’re not going mad. It’s about making the car more involving and more fun to drive without making it unaffordable. Tauter, more interactive handling is the key — with strong but not overblown performance. The DIG-T engine, in its higher state of tune, is perfect for that.”
Expect a 0-62mph sprint of under 9.0sec and a top speed of about 140mph from the Qashqai Nismo — and an asking price of less than £30,000.