Nissan’s logo is illuminated on a prototype of its new Ariya fully electric crossover. Nissan’s Z Proto performance car is reflected in the vehicle’s grille, while a redesigned Nissan Pathfinder SUV sits in the background.
Michael Wayland/CNBC
Nissan engine plans to introduce to the U.S. market a new type of hybrid that drives like a fully electric vehicle, but is powered – not driven – by a traditional gasoline engine.
The new Nissan “e-Power” is called a series hybrid. It uses the engine as a generator to power the vehicle’s electric motors which then propel the vehicle. It works like new extended-range electric vehicles, or EREVs, but has a smaller battery and doesn’t require an outlet.
It’s also different from a traditional hybrid, like the Toyota Prius, because the gasoline engine in these vehicles is used to power the vehicle. The hybrid series motor simply keeps the battery charged to power the vehicles’ electric motors.
Nissan’s e-Power hybrid system is expected to debut nationally later this year in a new version of its popular Rogue compact SUV.
The timing for such a vehicle could be ideal for Nissan with rising gasoline prices, slower-than-expected adoption of electric vehicles and an expected increase in hybrid sales amid new entries, officials say.
After losing billions of dollars on electric vehicles, automakers such as Nissan are turning to hybrid vehicles to meet customer expectations for fuel economy and improve driving performance.
S&P Global Mobility expects hybrids in the U.S. to account for 18.4% of new vehicle sales this year, up from 12.6% last year and 7.3% in 2023. It predicts that pure electric vehicles, meanwhile, will account for 7.1% of new vehicle sales, up from 8% last year.
“This is a unique powertrain for the United States,” Kurt Rosolowsky, Nissan North America vehicle evaluation and testing engineer, said during a press briefing. “It’s an electric vehicle, in terms of what powers the wheels, but it doesn’t have a plug and you fill it with gas like you do with a normal car.”
Series hybrids
Nissan and other automakers have used production hybrids elsewhere, notably in Asia, but manufacturers have been reluctant to introduce these vehicles in the United States because of consumer expectations for driving dynamics and power.
To address these concerns, Nissan said it developed a more powerful 1.5-liter three-cylinder turbocharged engine specifically for the e-Power system, in addition to new packaging and other improvements, to appease U.S. buyers.
“The turbo is only there to provide efficiency at higher revs so the gasoline engine provides power,” Rosolowsky said.
The e-Power for the U.S. market is the third generation of Nissan’s series hybrid since its debut in Japan in 2016. Since then, Nissan said it has sold more than 1.6 million vehicles worldwide with e-Power in nearly 70 countries.
“I think it will be a very good system. I think it will be very popular for Nissan in the new Rogue when it arrives later this year,” said Sam Abuelsamid, vice president of market research at Telemetry, a communications and consulting company.
Abuelsamid said the only real downside to the stock hybrid is that it is less efficient at higher speeds, something Nissan is trying to overcome with the new engine as well as battery size.
Driving e-Power
Driving a European version of the Nissan Rogue Sport sold with the ePower system in suburban Detroit, the vehicle’s driving dynamics – particularly rapid acceleration and regenerative braking – are formidable.
They have the familiar sound of an engine revving, but without shifting or crackling transmission gears and much less noise, vibration and harshness, or NVH, as the industry commonly calls it.
“The driving experience is really what makes it different with fewer components. You have less noise and less vibration,” Rosolowsky said.
Nissan e-Power logo
Courtesy of Nissan
Unlike traditional gasoline vehicles, the e-Power system also does not require a traditional transmission to change gears or a driveshaft that transfers torque from the transmission to the differential, thereby powering the wheels.
Although the Rogue Sport is a smaller, front-wheel-drive-only vehicle, it’s easy to see how the system will translate to a larger, all-wheel-drive vehicle, which is what the new Rogue with e-Power will be.
The lack of a plug, some engine noise and slight vibrations might also be more familiar to drivers reluctant to adopt fully electric vehicles.
Although Nissan does not release details such as pricing or fuel economy for the upcoming Rogue with e-Power, the Rogue Sport achieved more than 40 miles per gallon during heavy city driving, according to the vehicle’s MPG system.
The current Nissan Rogue, depending on the model, can achieve more than 30 MPG, according to the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Nissan’s vehicles have historically been less fuel efficient than those of its larger Japanese competitors. Honda engine And Toyota engine, the latter being the pioneer of traditional hybrids with the Prius and continues to dominate the sector in the United States
Nissan declined to discuss the possibility of expanding the e-Power system to other vehicles in the United States, but confirmed that the new system is modular and capable of working with many different engines.
“If we were to expand this to other vehicles, you could theoretically put it on another different sized gasoline engine and have more options for an e-Power system,” Rosolowsky said.