2023 Nissan Ariya Review [Second Electric Car from Japanese EV Pioneer]

This is an all new car. This is a very important car for nissan, because nissan, of course, as you will know, made the nissan leaf that was back in 2010 and it became one of the worlds best selling evs its a significant milestone for a manufacturer in the ev segment. This is nissan. Ev take two: this is their first level. This is their second fully electric car, its their first suv. That is fully electric, its completely new, completely new platform and theres. Even a new battery set up in this car, its now liquid cool compared to the air cool batteries that were in the nissan leaf. Now this thing looks futuristic. It looks amazing. I love the thin headlights, the graphic elements on here, theres little motifs and stuff around the car and the contouring is fabulous, especially in these brighter colors. I urge you not to get it into dark colors, get it in these bright colors, because it really shows up the special features of these things. Now. Prices for these are starting from around 43 000 pounds up to uh over 50 grand ill put all the specs and everything on the screen, because im at an event, so itll be easier to do it. That way. Now, initially, we will get them in three basic models. If you like, theres two trim levels, theyre all well equipped theyre all well kitted out, they all come with lots and lots of gadgets and well go through some of that.

When we get inside the car theres a two wheel, drive ie front wheel, drive car uh 63 kilowatt zero to six zero to sixty miles an hour zero to a hundred kilometers per hour, its about seven and a half seconds on these ones. Then you get the e force one and thats a little bit more powerful. Its about 280 brake horsepower, thats twin motor motor on the front motor on the back, and that one puts out about, like i said, 280 horsepower, and it will do zero to 100 kilometers per hour in about 5.7 seconds. So really looking forward to trying this car. This is a real step up from this end. This is basically the next generation of electric vehicles so well take a look at the boot. Well, look at the practicality. Well, look at the space in the rear and in the front and of course well take it for a drive Music. So lets have a look at the boot. I got ta say its really nice in this copper. If you want to get one get one in a contrasting color, because the features of the car really stand out and its got quite a bluff rear end its got real presence about it. This one, of course, is power, assisted uh tailgate on this one, and it opens up to a real, quite a large boot, actually with split folding. 60, 60 40 rear seats looks like a high floor, but it does the same thing that the qashqai does, where it has that split folding secondary floor panel, so you can take these out and then you get a little bit more space down there.

This one at the moment is full of cables and stuff, like that, obviously its a plug in electric hybrid, underneath there youve got compartments for tools and stuff like that, as well theres, two little compartments on each side like bins, really you would say on each side Of the cabin with straps as well theres hooks theres lights. I dont see a power supply in this particular model. Unless its oh, there could be one there. So thats pretty handy. I think its pretty practical, maybe not quite as tall as you might be, expecting but again you can remove the floor and it gives you a bit more space, so whats it like in the rear lets check that out. Oh wow check it out. They call this. The lounge, its like a japanese lounge, is what the interior of this car is meant to be and already im kind of feeling. It im very laid back, as you may have noticed, and uh look at these incredible patterns on here. Theres a name for these ill. Give you that, in a minute, but its here its here, the trim, spec and the trimming and the way that its all done is actually really really good. This is like a canvas material here with leather, so its a leather canvas combination with a deep pocket down here. Quite a tight thing there. Now the foot room is a bit tight. Now this driving seat obviously is set for my driving position.

Six foot, two quite tall: have it a little bit on its lowest setting um and so the feet are are sort of locked in there. So theyre quite tight. But if you do that, thats no problem at all. But having said that, no issues with the knees and no issues with the shins now, of course, one of the reasons for that is, of course the battery is under the floor. Uh brings the center of gravity down wheels at each corner because of the way that its designed its completely new, like i said so, the floor is one its completely clean here, so you can easily have three people sitting across here. The only thing is this center console can actually move it, slides back and forth and if you put it at its rear settings it moves by 15 centimeters. So it would take some of this space here for the third passenger, but by and large i would say its actually quite comfortable even for three passengers to sit here and the third passenger might well. I dont know maybe a little bit more room there now back here you have the heated seats and two usb, the regular one and the usb c, so thats actually quite handy, but i guess the heated seats are for the two passengers rather than for the third One you do get an armrest if you are only two people in the car um with the cup holders and uh isofix chelsea anchor points and again this is kind of a suede inset to otherwise a leather seat.

So again really nicely designed really nicely laid out. Big roof here and so quite airy, despite a very thick c pillar, but still quite a spacious, airy feeling, maybe a little bit of intrusion on the headroom just because of the tapered roof line, but generally not a problem very comfortable, very nice, very relaxed back here. What is what is it like in the front lets find out wow? This is futuristic check it out. I mean that is massive. I think the seat actually was further back than i was saying, because i feel quite stretched back lets turn it on check this out. Um and i have heads up display as well as these 2.3 uh, two 12.3 inch screens um nissan, intelligent mobility – oh and this stereos on you was on and youve got heads up display as well. If you can just make out check this out massive screen here, but look at this look at this empty area here and the center console. I dont know why hes talking whoa um really wants to play the music doesnt it uh. Here you have wireless charger. Youve got here: youve got um uh. These are the um cup holders. With the you know, this kind of um springy holders what you can actually just cover the whole thing up and this kind of brushed wood effect. Now this wood is extraordinary because youve got the buttons right here for the drive modes and you know theyre haptic now this is interesting.

So if i press open here, theres a secret compartment that comes out look at this. This is where you hide your cash and stuff quite a deep bin down there and there you go and then, to close it again, i would say a secret except for the fact that the buttons are in a really prominent position, which are right here right next To the drive modes, which is significant right, um, it is on, is it on it is on so uh? Why am i not getting look at the music it makes wow? This makes a real sort of event doesnt it of everything you do have a glove box here which is like that um and then youve got this uh flap this kind of fin. That goes all the way across the hyzer vents here and here there is your volume control and your stereo control hazard lights. This is your big screen, which is kind of curved here, very easy, very straightforward to use, and you have a digital and normal mirror as well. This thing here this whole console down here: youve got usb uh a regular, usb and youve got a usbc and another. I think thats a power supply, i think thats a compartment cant quite make out from this angle. I think thats another compartment down there and this thing moves. So there you go so there you go as you can see, right: okay, thats on this forward, setting and thats.

Now, on this rear most setting, you can see its encroaching on some of the legroom back there, but if you move it back so now, i can really see um what this is. I still cant make it out. Anyway, i was going to tell you what this pattern was, which you can see all across the doors in the middle here im assuming thats a speaker, um look at the pedals are offset. Actually they are offset because accelerator is well off to the right over there. But it does give you a lot of space for your leg left foot there. This huge space down here is really interesting, very well spec cars, as i mentioned, and the name of this pan, which i was going to give you is kumiko kumiko patents throughout the car looks amazing. I mean its just look at this. This is that material. This is this wood, which again the haptic feedback buttons that are embedded in for the aircon right there and youve got the screen. The screen, of course, is touch as well: um, home screen and all the rest of it all comes up there. Its quite an extraordinary place to be, it really is whats it like to drive, lets find out. So here we are in the nissan aria and literally my first time, driving up just driven it away from the hotel. Now its got the most that you would expect. So its got the driving modes.

Um lets go through them. We have sports standard and eco, so lets just kick it off in standard. Well, stick with that one for now, weve also got uh e pedal mode, so the e pedal mode ive gone into because thats, the one pedal mode and uh its, not yeah its just that the when you lift off completely its a little bit abrupt in how The braking comes in so it could be a little bit more linear, but i think it just takes a little bit getting used to the navigation will cut in because were following a route at the moment, so dont mind that um we literally have just started off From the hotel, so this car has 50 50 weight distribution. Now the spec that were in right now is the um. 215 horsepower um zero to 100 kilometers per hour in 7.5 seconds. So this is the entry level in terms of the power um. So this is this is a uh, the sort of spec that most people would get. One of the interesting things that they said in the presentation earlier is that its geared up for longer drives. So the sat nav the intelligent sat nav is set up in such a way that it kind of works out your route. It works out where you should be charging, but it also looks at the status of the charges. So it looks at whether the charges are okay to use whether theyre, the right ones, whether you can go in there and it will kind of itll re route you to find the right places for you to charge and and to basically get the best out of Your longer journey so were into a bit of motorway stretch.

Now that this thing does have pro pilot, which is kind of like the autopilot system. That sort of takes care of everything for you im not going to try on this run because were on a media. Drive we dont have a lot of time with the car so its i want to get to know the system before i try it and difficult to understand exactly how to do it, although its all here in front of me, i mean i just scroll through this Buttons on the left spoke of the steering wheel and i can go through and its telling me the charge time and all the other information is right there in front of me, but yeah its one of those things where you know itd be good to try on The longer run to see how that works. It also has automatic parking as well. So you know youll find the spot and itll park the car for you, so itll do all of that stuff. So its got all of those features, as you would expect from a modern ev, all the gadgets and gizmos and all of those new tech features and the driver assistance driver aid features that youd expect are all present and correct. Now that were on the motorway, we can experience a smoother ride. Um. Obviously, the roads on the motorway are smoother, so you, you dont, feel any any fidgetiness on this uh on this ride at all cruises, very well, ive still got it on e power mode, but as long as you keep a consistency of throttle, then its fine, although Really i wouldnt recommend the e pedal for the motorway, because, when you lift off, it does suddenly start to break which could catch people out behind you im, keeping it in standard mode for now, because really on the motorway um that it seems to be the right One um, but generally its uh, its pretty smooth in acceleration.

Now this thing is its not a. I wouldnt say its like punchy, initially, not not at this sort of speed, but you know its quite linear in the term in the way the torque is delivered and the way that the throttle response so its kind of what you would expect itd be interesting to Try it later on to see what it does under full acceleration and stuff like that, the steering is actually very nicely weighted its. I feel that its weighted up a little bit now that were at this sort of speed, which is a good thing, of course, um, but its quite responsive so far its been pretty good its about what you would expect, but overall its a fairly easy nice cruising Experience exactly the sort of thing that youd be looking for in an ev that is designed actually to do longer distances, whilst were on the motorway, its a good opportunity to look at the driving position and the visibility. All around visibility generally at the front is no problem at all and youve got these big wing mirrors as well. It has a digital mirror, so its one of those mirrors again where you know, if you flick the button up, it goes entirely digital. These are not my favorite things. Ive got to be honest with you, but actually this ones not so bad and its placed far enough for me in that i dont have that much of an issue focusing, but i am seeing some reflection on it.

So um its. Maybe not as clear but again you get a much wider view compared to how you would do normally, because normally the rear window is quite tight, and so therefore it conflicts with you a little bit. If you go into the digital youre, seeing a lot more behind you now in terms of the sitting position, its fine im struggling a little bit with the back so its just, i keep adjusting its power seats. Obviously i keep adjusting the backrest to try and get the right angle for me, but for some reason, im just struggling to find that the interesting thing about i have been able to adjust the steering it is reach and rake adjustable. Um powered so thats quite handy. The interesting thing about this car is, as youre sitting here, its very spacious, a because of the panoramic roof. It gives you that feeling of airiness in the cabin, but also the fact that its got this kind of through space here in the middle, because weve got this console that moves back and forth um. I think im supposed to be in this lane um, but it generally it feels very uh spacious here at the front because of the way its designed – and it has this kind of space here around your feet as well. So you get a sense of real space in this car um, which is replicated throughout the cabin. So theyve done a great job with making you feel like youre sitting in a lounge like they say, which is what you know.

Theyre trying to achieve here so were on some slightly nicer roads now im going to switch it up into sports mode, although were not doing a lot of speed at the moment um, but were a little bit twisty now immediately i did see i did feel a Response from switching into sport, it was actually quite pronounced slight improvement in the throttle response, but also um. I felt the steering tighten up as well. The steering definitely tightened up there so thats, which is kind of what you would like with um with sports mode isnt. It so just moving on now now were on some bumpier roads, and i did find the right is actually very good in this car with electric cars ive often said in the past, where um, i feel that theyre a little bit rigid and fidgety. Now on this one, actually i find it to be quite smooth, theyre, very well damped, so its very well controlled. Obviously you know they put uh what 15 years of learning tech about how to do electric cars into this second version of their all electric ev. From this end, so you can understand that theyve applied some of what theyve learned to this car and it shows now we are pushing it around some corners a little bit now. Its fairly neutral in its attitude were not going um, particularly fast, but were able to use the throttle a little bit more. Okay, now were going were going some um and the braking again uh im still keeping it in e pedal mode, so im actually uh able to not need to use the brake pedal uh too much even in this situation, but its proving to be quite faithful.

The steering waiting is is actually really nice at this point um and seems to be quite accurate in terms of responses again were not talking sports car or anything like that, but were talking a reasonable level of engagement. Should you be looking for it. But having said that were not um were hustling now a little bit so its not too bad the acceleration isnt bad. I mean this. One is a 7.5 seconds um, but it does feel there is, i think, theres an artificial, sound as well that theyve introduced into it. So, for example, if we just punch it now yeah you can – and i just got scrabbling at the wheels there as well, so that delivery of torque can catch out a little bit. But you know generally its its no problem and its i wouldnt say understeer its just that slight tangent, because as the front wheels just struggle for grip there, a little bit but quite smooth flowing now and good good responses. So there you go weve established that this is a really good car to drive around the city, its a good car to cruise on the motorway, and once she stops talking, we can also confirm that its a good car to make your passengers sick. If you want to throw them around as well, but actually with all the space in the back theyre in pretty good shape, i reckon but overall its very good. I think that you know you know the fact that nissan had such a big hit with the leaf.

The second thing that they were going to do was always going to be a better wasnt it, whether its a game changer like the leaf, was were not sure. Time will tell, but i think certainly itll become one of the major players in the segment for sure, and i think a lot of the existing manufacturers are now entering the market a little bit later. Perhaps on this end, um need to have a good long. Look at this car uh, but certainly want to check out uh being sherms from next month in fact or july, if youre watching this in july, actually probably are so theyre insurance now, so you should be able to get test drives and stuff dont ask about deliveries. Thats, probably going to take a while, but yeah worth checking out. Let me know what you think of the aria id love to hear your comments about this car, actually quite enjoying the car. Now, in this, in this environment and uh yeah catch you guys again in the next video, a big shout out and thanks to jay williams over at air technic, who are top tier sponsors of brown car guy check them out at air technic co uk for exhausts Brakes, suspension and body kits, plus our other major, sponsor naijan solutions, much appreciation also to tier 4 sponsors muhammad ali. You made tom conway, gordon and reza deal and, of course, all these other guys who supporting on patreon brown car guy is eternally grateful.

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