Nissan Ariya – Back to Basics

Nissan Ariya 63 kWh Advance

€47,390

At the bottom of the Ariya offering is the Advance. In this trim level, the Ariya has a 218 hp and 300 Nm electric motor on the front axle, which is powered by a 63 kWh battery pack. You can reach 100 km/h in 7.5 seconds and the top speed is 160 km/h. The theoretical range is 360 kilometers. The Ariya already has a heat pump on board as standard. Fast charging on a DC charger is possible with a maximum charging speed of 130 kW. AC charging, for example at the charging station or wallbox, is possible with a maximum of 7.4 kW.

Above the Advance are the Evolve and Performance. The Evolve has a standard 87 kWh battery and with 242 hp just slightly more power than the Advance. On one battery charge, it goes a lot further with 500 kilometers. In addition, the Evolve is also available with ‘e-4orce’ four-wheel drive. Then, thanks to the extra electric motor on the rear axle, the Ariya suddenly has 306 hp and 600 Nm of torque and accelerates to 100 km/h in 5.7 seconds. The Nissan is only out of breath at 200 km/h, but with a range of 460 kilometers it is slightly less far. At the top of the Ariya rock is the Performance. It also has four-wheel drive and kicks it up to 394 hp. Both the Evolve and the Performance can charge AC with up to 22 kW. The DC charging speed is the same as the Advance. The three variants cost €56,390, €61,390 and €66,390 respectively.

Fixed roof

Back to the Advance. From the outside, the basic version of the Ariya can only be recognized by its 18-inch wheels with aerodynamic hoods, as well as the ‘closed’ roof. From the Evolve, the Ariya has a glass panoramic roof. The Ariya shines in the dark with LED lighting front and rear, but for adaptive headlights and sequential turn signals you also have to go to the more expensive versions. ‘Ceramic Gray’ is the only paint color that Nissan supplies at no extra cost. The palette also contains three regular paint colors and six two-tone compositions, with the roof in black. The most expensive colors have an additional cost of €1,400.

Nissan Ariya

The Nissan Ariya also has an ‘Intelligent Key’ (Keyless Entry), an electrically operated tailgate, parking sensors and an ‘Intelligent Around View Monitor’ as standard, with which you can look around the car via camera images while parking. A heated windscreen is also standard, useful when demisting or defrosting the car in winter.

Warm up

Speaking of those cold, bleak months: in the Ariya you are already pretty warm as standard. Literally and figuratively, because Nissan always supplies the Ariya with heated front seats and heated steering wheel. The front seats are upholstered in a combination of black fabric and artificial leather and are 6-way electrically adjustable. The dashboard of the Ariya always consists of two 12.3-inch TFT screens, of which the middle screen is a touchscreen. A wireless phone charger is also included, as are wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. If you don’t want to touch the screen, you can also give the car voice commands via Amazon Alexa.

Nissan Ariya. The basic version does not have a panoramic roof, but does have this seat cover.

In the field of safety systems, the Ariya standard is also quite weak. Adaptive cruise control, a blind spot assistant and an active emergency braking assistant are always on board, but ProPilot with Navi-Link, with which the Ariya can drive semi-autonomously and anticipate exits and bends via the map system, is standard.

That actually leaves little to check on the options list. Feel free to say almost nothing, because for the lion’s share of the extra equipment you have to seek refuge with the Evolve and Performance. In those variants, the Ariya has a Bose audio system, heated and ventilated front seats that are 8-way adjustable, a heated rear seat, a head-up display and a parking assistant. With the Evolve, however, you are also immediately attached to the battery pack of 87 kWh, making this variant almost 10 mille more expensive than the entry-level model. If you don’t need the extra battery capacity, you can in principle work fine with the basic Ariya.