Out with CHAdeMO and in with CCS.
Nissan has just revealed its much-anticipated Ariya electric crossover. It has a range of up to 300 miles (EPA estimate in 2wd trim with the biggest battery) and an estimated starting base price of $40,000. Additionally, Nissan has chosen to drop CHAdeMO in favor of CCS in the US and Europe for DC fast charging.
While it seems the Ariya is a big improvement over the current Nissan LEAF, there are some elements of the Ariya that we aren’t particularly fond of including its 7.2 kWh home-charging limitation and a base price that seems a little high when compared to say the Tesla Model 3 or even a Volkswagen ID.4, which should be a head-to-head competitor for the Ariya.
However, there’s also a lot to like with the Ariya. For starters, there are several versions to choose from and performance is actually very strong if you opt for certain versions of the car. Additionally, you get two battery choices, which makes the Ariya more suitable for a wider audience of buyers.
Battery
Looking at the spec sheet we can see the gross capacity of the two battery sizes available are 65 kWh and 90 kWh. On those packs, Nissan is opening up 63 kWh and 87 kWh, respectively, to be accessed for use. That’s an extremely high percentage of the pack compared to most competitors. We wonder if Nissan will allow owners to set a charge limit so charging can shut off below 100% for daily charging.
The 90 kWh battery pack is expected to deliver 300 miles of driving range. We’d expect the 65 kWh standard pack to return roughly 225 miles of range, based on Nissan’s 300-mile estimate for the larger pack.
We also learned that Nissan will be sourcing their battery cells from Chinese battery giant CATL, and that they will be prismatic NMC (Lithium-Nickel-Manganese-Cobalt-Oxide) cells, and not pouch cells like the LEAF uses.
Gallery: 2021 Nissan Ariya
114 Photos Nissan also told us that Nissan’s ProPilot will be standard on the Aryia, and ProPilot Assist 2.0 will be optional. ProPilot Assist 2.0 offers hands-off single-lane highway operation. As with the LEAF, the Ariya will have Nissan’s e-Pedal, which allows the driver to operate the vehicle in most conditions with a single pedal by offering strong lift-off regenerative braking. Also standard on all Ariyas are safety features including Automatic Emergency Braking with Pedestrian Detection, Rear Automatic Braking, Lane Departure Warning, Blind Spot Warning, Rear Cross-Traffic Alert, and High Beam Assist. The Ariya will also feature Nissan’s Intelligent Around View Monitor and Nissan’s Intelligent Forward Collision Warning. Nissan’s departure from CHAdeMO to CCS with the Ariya should strike a deathblow to CHAdeMO in the US and Europe, as Nissan was really the only OEM making CHAdeMO-capable EVs in any real volume. The Ariya will charge at speeds up to 130 kW on a DC Fast charger. We were told by Nissan that the Ariya can accept 350 amps at 400 volts, and hold its high charging rate for a long period, allowing for 175 miles of range to be added in 30 minutes. As for AC Charging, the Ariya will have a 7.2 kW onboard charger which is OK, but not great. Most of the new electric vehicles coming out with large batteries are opting for 9.6 kW AC charging, which can significantly reduce the charge time. I asked Nissan for comment on the decision to restrict the AC charging to 7.2 kW and was told that they believe most customers won’t notice the difference since people typically charge overnight, and in that case, the slightly slower speed isn’t a factor. The Ariya will feature Amazon Alexa to “simplify and organize their lives”, as Nissan puts it. There’s also wireless Apple Carplay and Android Auto standard on all Ariya. There’s a flat floor to offer a more spacious interior look and feel, as well as Zero-Gravity seats wrapped up in Nissan’s new “Timeless Japanese Futurism” design language. The Ariya will have a towing capacity of up to 1,500lbs in the US. For the European market, Nissan representatives said the Ariya will have a slightly higher towing capability than it does in the US, but didn’t divulge the actually towing capacity the Ariya will have there. With a decision that will make most Nissan fans exhale in relief, yes the Ariya will have a proper thermal management system. We don’t know too many details about it but we were told it will be a proper liquid thermal management system. With a proper TMS, we can only hope that the Ariya will not suffer from the same battery degradation problems that have plagued the LEAF from its inception. We learned the Ariya will not have a front trunk, as Nissan engineers pushed the HVAC system and other components further forward than they usually are to allow for a more roomy interior. However, it appears the Ariya doesn’t have much room for cargo in the rear. The specifications sheet states the Ariya has 16.5 cu ft of cargo volume for the front-wheel drive version, and 14.6 cu ft for the e-4ORCE AWD variant. To put that into perspective, the much-smaller BMW i3 has 15.1 cu ft of cargo space and the similarly-sized Ford Mustang Mach-e offers 29 cu ft of cargo volume. Nissan representatives are looking into the cargo space numbers to make sure the figures posted in the release aren’t a mistake. It seems to us, just looking at the pictures that the Ariya has ample cargo space, so we’re not sure how they arrived at only 16.5 and 14.6 cu ft of space. The base Ariya will have front-wheel drive and will use an Externally Excited Synchronous Motor, (EESM) like the Renault Zoe uses. The LEAF uses a Permanent Magnet Excited Synchronous Motor (PMSM) as does the Tesla Model 3 and the BMW i3. The front-wheel-drive Ariya has 215 hp and 221 lb-ft of torque. For the e-4ORCE all-wheel-drive variant, Nissan adds another motor in the rear which increases the power figures to a very respectable 389 hp with 443 lb-ft of torque. There’s a lot to like about the Ariya. We are particularly happy to see that Nissan is using a large battery that will offer 300 miles of range and that they are finally using a proper thermal management system. 130 kW DC fast charge isn’t great by today’s standards, but it is good enough and certainly an upgrade from the LEAF. The Ariya is expected to launch about a year from now in Japan, with availability in the US and Europe before the end of 2021. Nissan tells us the starting price will be about $40,000 in the US which is roughly $8,000 more than than the starting price of a LEAF S. So while the Ariya will be a much more capable EV than the LEAF, buyers that are shopping in the ~$30,000 price range (pre-subsidiaries) will lose one of the options available to them today once the LEAF is retired. We’re looking forward to learning more about the Ariya in the coming months leading up to its launch. What are your thoughts on Nissan’s new EV? Please let us know in the comment section below. Source: Read Full Article
Driver Assist Features
Charging
Interior
Towing – Yes!
Thermal Management
The Ariya appears to have ample cargo space, yet the official capacity offered by Nissan is only 16.5 cu ftCargo space
Powertrain
Summary