Nissan Goes Hands-Off With 2023 Ariya E-Force EV

Back in 2010, as then-CEO of Nissan Carlos Ghosn was launching the first mainstream modern battery electric vehicle (BEV), the Leaf, he promised a slate of additional BEVs in the next few years. While an electric version of the NV200 compact van was offered in Europe and Japan, the Leaf has remained the only Nissan with a plug in North America, until now. In late December 2022, Nissan began deliveries of the single motor front-wheel drive Ariya crossover and will shortly begin delivering a more powerful dual motor variant. We’ve recently driven the all-wheel-drive Ariya e-Force, but was it worth the 12 year wait?

In short, yes.

While the Leaf remains in the lineup as a compact hatchback in a rapidly declining market segment, the Ariya drops right into the segment that American car buyers are currently most enthusiastic about spending their money on, compact to midsize crossovers. Not only is the Ariya late as a second Nissan BEV, it’s arriving into an increasingly crowded market for BEVs overall. In the past two years, we’ve seen the launch of the Ford Mustang Mach-E, Volkswagen ID4, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6, Toyota bZ4X, Subaru Solterra and that’s just the mainstream brands with even more from premium brands. Then there is the best-selling Tesla Model Y which carries somewhat premium pricing with a much more mainstream look and feel.

Has the Ariya got what it takes to compete? There’s certainly a lot to like about the Ariya. From a design perspective, it’s clean and modern with the increasingly de rigueur fastback crossover profile. It’s not likely to catch your eye quite as much as the Ioniq 5 or the bZ4X today. On the other hand, the lack of visual gimmickry may well hold up better a decade from now, or at least Nissan hopes it will. Without the need for a traditional grille, Nissan has incorporated its signature V-Motion look at the front with a pair of slim LED running lamps. It doesn’t have the flash of the animated lights you’ll find on the front of a Cadillac Lyriq, but it brings the brand look forward.

The contoured flanks seem to have taken a bit of inspiration from recent Mazdas catching the light in some pleasant ways without being overwhelming. Unlike many recent BEVs that have adopted some form of flush mounted door handles that seem to disappear or automatic presenting doors, the more conventional handles of the Ariya, are much more likely to remain functional after a heavy winter storm.

A great place to spend time

Where the Ariya really breaks new ground for Nissan is in the cabin. Nissan has taken advantage of the flat underfloor battery to give space to the occupants, especially in the front. Electronics have been moved from behind the dash to under the hood above the motor, sacrificing a frunk for an open and airy environment. The dash itself is kept clean and uncluttered which may be a mixed bag.

A pair of 12.3-inch displays sit behind a single compound curved sheet of glass with the instrument cluster being slightly concave and the central touchscreen ever so slightly convex. The upper portion of the dashboard is covered mostly in a very pleasant feeling fabric. A dark central strip with a copper colored trim piece spans the center and contains the vents and a volume knob right in the middle. Below that is a strip of wood veneer containing the stop/start button and climate controls. When the Ariya is off, the climate controls disappear, but when started, they are lit from behind. There are no switches or knobs, but when the backlit controls are touched they provide haptic feedback. Similar haptic controls can be found on the center console for the drive mode, sun-shade, e-Step and auto hold. The look is clean, elegant and uncluttered and while I’d prefer more physical controls, at least the haptic feedback provides assurance that the input has been recognized.

Nissan includes a lot of features on the Ariya as standard equipment that are either not available or cost extra on competitors. Among these are a multi-color heads up display, heated front and rear seats and steering wheel and a movable center console. A switch on the driver’s side of the console allows it to be moved back and forth several inches so that the cup holders are always at the optimum position. While there is no front trunk, there is plenty of space in the back for cargo with almost 23 cubic feet behind the seats and 60 with the seats folded. It’s not quite as spacious as the Ioniq 5 or the Mach-E but it’s adequate.

Nissan began deliveries of the single motor Ariya in late December 2022, with the dual motor e-Force variant going on sale in the next few weeks. Unlike many of its competitors, apart from the Toyota, the single motor Ariya is front wheel drive. The front and rear motors are identical with the front-drive variant delivering 238-hp and 221 lb-ft of torque. The dual motor e-Force gets a combined 389 hp 442 lb-ft of torque. That’s enough to drop the 0-60 mph sprint from a very acceptable 7.2 seconds to just 4.8 seconds.

While that may not seem like much in comparison Tesla’s Model Y Performance at about 3.5-sec getting to highway speed in under 5 seconds is really all the performance anyone needs unless they are going to track days. In our day of driving, the Ariya e-Force never felt wanting for speed and the instant torque of electric propulsion makes it feel even stronger.

Our first drive took place during a very unusual extended period of wet weather in Northern California. While this was less than ideal for photography, it provided a good opportunity to evaluate the capabilities of the all-wheel-drive system. Thanks to the ability to manage the electric motors individually, along with the brakes, the engineers have incorporated surprisingly capable stability control and torque vectoring. Motor control allows the front to rear balance to be adjusted very precisely, while the brakes can shift the torque from side to side.

Driving in heavy rain, the Ariya always felt stable and in control. During a stop at Sonoma Raceway we tested the Ariya on a course set up in the paddock with several maneuvers including full acceleration and braking, acceleration through a decreasing radius curve, rapid lane change and a slalom. The most notable aspect of the test was that there was nothing notable. Foot to the floor acceleration through the curve and slalom resulted in just smooth, neutral handling with no oversteer or understeer and no jerking of the car around as the brakes shifted from side to side. It just keeps the Ariya at its limit and goes where you point it.

As we drove from the track out toward Bodega Bay and then back to Santa Rosa, the Ariya was easy to handle through the curving roads, some of which are quite uneven in places. Despite the road contours, there was a minimum of head bobbing or rocking. In the few places where there was an opportunity to pass slower traffic, the Ariya picks up speed quickly to complete the overtake and then the regenerative braking hauls it back down to a more acceptable speed.

Speaking of regenerative braking, Nissan has opted to go with what they refer to as e-Step rather than the e-Pedal on the Leaf. They claim that feedback from prospective customers is that they didn’t want the system to come to a complete stop without touching the brake pedal. The degree of regen is selectable, but as the car gets down to about 5-7 mph, the regen ramps out and the driver has to brake to fully stop. Given that this is all controlled in software, it seems like it would have been better to just give drivers the option in a menu to select the type of regen they prefer, but most braking can be done in most driving conditions without using the pedal.

Going hands-off

For driving control, the Ariya is the first Nissan product in the US market to offer ProPilot Assist 2.0. This system which has been available in Japan for a couple of years is the company’s first hands-off driver assist, offering capability similar to GM’s Super Cruise and Ford’s BlueCruise. It uses a combination of a tri-focal front camera system (long-range, wide and ultra-wide angle), five radar sensors, high-precision GPS (hence the second shark fin antenna on the roof) and high-definition maps to limit use to highways.

I’ve previously complained about the human machine interface with BlueCruise features a predominantly blue color scheme in the instrument cluster that can lead to mode confusion about when the driver’s hands should be on the steering wheel. GM uses a colored light bar in the top of the steering wheel rim to indicate whether the system is ready (blue), active hands-off (green) or requires driver take-over (red). This system is much more visible even when the driver is watching the road and works really well.

Nissan has devised a system that perhaps works even better. A heads-up display is standard on all e-Force models including the Platinum which gets ProPilot 2.0 (other trims still get only the original hands-on ProPilot). There are three modes when the button on the steering wheel is pressed for 2.0. First is basic adaptive cruise control that maintains a gap to the vehicle ahead. When ACC is active, both the cluster and HUD have a white color scheme. Once the sensors detect lane markings, the color scheme on both displays automatically switches to green and hands-on lane center functionality similar to the original ProPilot is available.

If the maps tell the vehicle that it is on a highway approved for hand-off operation, the cluster and HUD switch to a blue scheme automatically and the driver can release the wheel. If map data isn’t available or the car leaves the highway, it automatically drops back to green or white and the driver has to take the wheel.

We had the opportunity to drive the Ariya on the highway in varying degrees of rain and clear skies. The hands-free operation will continue to function in light rain, but once the wiper speed gets above an intermediate level, the system automatically switches to hands on mode. If you try to cheat the system by turning off the wipers and doing manual single sweep control, heavy rain will quickly obscure the cameras and force the switch to hands on control. There is also an infrared driver monitor camera to make sure the driver’s eyes remain on the road.

Nissan’s implementation works really well leaving no doubt about the current control mode and Ford and other automakers should take note. Even on Ford or Lincoln vehicles with a HUD, the hands-on/off icon in the display is small and easily missed. A clear indication of the current state of the system is essential to safe use of such technology. The system control also worked well, keeping the Ariya locked in the center of the lane and providing very smooth speed control with no jerkiness as it slowed or sped up.

Range and Charging

Of course, since the Ariya is a BEV, you might be wondering about range and charging. Nissan offers two battery sizes, both sourced from China’s CATL. The Engage trim gets a smaller battery with 63-kWh of usable energy (out of 66 kWh total) that yields a relatively modest range of just 205 miles, the lowest among this size class of EVs with all-wheel-drive. Stepping up to the Engage+, Evolve+ or Platinum+ brings a larger pack with 87 kWh available from 91 kWh total. That’s enough for 272 miles with the Engage+ and Evolve+ or 267 miles with the Platinum+ on 20-inch wheels.

We didn’t get an opportunity to do a full range test, but we started the day with 94% charge. After a 145 mile loop that included periods of highway driving in heavy rain and some brisk driving on curving rural roads the car was still showing 35% charge and 90 miles of range. Extrapolating to a full charge works out to about 245 miles which is good given the conditions. In better weather conditions, it should be able to achieve its rated range without too much difficulty.

We also didn’t get a chance to charge the Ariya, but Nissan hasn’t gone particularly aggressive on this front. The on-board AC charger maxes out at just 7.2-kW. For most drivers that do less than 40-50 miles per day, that will easily keep the car topped up with overnight charging. While the Leaf still sticks with the Japanese CHAdeMO connector for DC fast charging, the Ariya adopts the North American CCS standard used by everyone else except Tesla and Mitsubishi. The maximum charging power is 130-kW, just over half what is possible with the Ioniq 5 or EV6. Nissan states it will charge from 10-80% in about 40 minutes, more than twice as long as the 18 minutes the Hyundai and Kia are capable of on a suitable charger. That implies that the Nissan starts ramping down the charging power earlier than the Koreans. So the Ariya might not be the top choice for those that take frequent road trips, although it’s much better than the Leaf.

How Much?

The Ariya e-Force Engage with the standard battery starts at $47,190 with the Engage+ with the larger battery starting at $51,190. The loaded Platinum+ will set you back $60,190. For now, the Ariya is only produced in Japan and uses a Chinese-made battery which means it won’t be eligible for the new clean vehicle credits. Nissan, like other automakers, is evaluating its manufacturing plans in the wake of the Inflation Reduction Act and may add Ariya production in North America, but that probably won’t happen before 2025 at the earliest. The Ariya has a lot to recommend it and does offer features not available in competitors like heated rear seats and the ProPilot 2.0 is very well executed. Buyers will have to evaluate what features they want or need to determine if it’s the best value proposition for their needs.