First Drive: Nissan e-POWER Hybrid System

Hi, welcome and roll live. I'm Paul

Turbull. Uh we're here in Farmington Hills, Michigan at uh Nissan's headquarters. And uh we had a chance to

headquarters. And uh we had a chance to drive this uh was going to be the Nissan Rogue with the hybrid e- power system.

And we have uh Kurt here with us to Can you tell us a little bit about what makes this e- power system a different way to do a hybrid?

Yeah. So the the big uh difference with this system as opposed to other systems that are typically seen in the US market is that this is a series hybrid. What

that means is the wheels are purely motor driven. There is no mechanical

motor driven. There is no mechanical connection between the gas engine on board and the wheels. So what that does for the customer is deliver a smooth EV like driving fuel without the need to

plug it in and with the convenience of going to a gas station to fill it up with fuel.

So this is new to the US but Nissan's been uh working on this and has it in has had it in the market for how long?

Yes. So, the Nissan uh e- power system first debuted in Japan um in 2016 on the the Note, the Nissan uh note e- power.

Uh the big difference between that system and what this third gen system will include is uh a 5in-1 e- power modular unit. Um the big benefit there

modular unit. Um the big benefit there is the uh reduced mass, the modularity of it and the increased efficiency. And

and the reason why that's so crucial for the US is that we have higher driving speeds here, higher payloads, um longer road trip driving scenes, which those

firstg systems just would not have been able to deliver uh for a US customer.

And at Monroe, we we're big on uh the whole idea of integrating everything together, eliminating all the cables and extra brackets that you have everywhere all the vehicle. there. Those are just

opportunities for things to go wrong.

Um, so put it all together in one system and you're going to have the highest quality and the lowest trouble.

So, love to see that. One of the things that uh we experienced in the car is there's almost no uh NBH, no noise as

the engine starts. uh very seamless and definitely that the fact that it's completely disconnected from the drive line felt like there's like no torque

bump at all in as the engine starts.

Also, the the calibration allowed it to change speeds as the vehicle was changing speeds. So, it didn't sound

changing speeds. So, it didn't sound odd like a like it didn't sound like a a variable speed transmission or something. So is that something that's

something. So is that something that's going to be in the the rogue when Yes, absolutely. Yeah, those elements

Yes, absolutely. Yeah, those elements were crucial to uh bringing this technology to market like you mentioned.

Uh a lot of times customers are probably driving hybrids and they're used to uh as speed increases or as RPMs increase as we traditionally know from a a

conventional transmission setup um that noise will increase too. Uh but with this setup being that the wheels are completely disconnected from the gas engine there is that worry of customers

not understanding why is the engine coming on why isn't it on so there was a critical target in development to minimize that engine on off um NVH and

to try to make it as seamless as possible in those transition periods.

Now on the Rogue when it comes it's going to be a little different. What we

were driving was the um European version and the Rogue is coming in. It's going

to have all-wheel drive.

That's correct.

So, it's going to have an extra motor in the rear.

That's correct.

To help uh give a little extra horsepower as well.

Right. Yeah. So, this setup today is like you mentioned frontwheel drive only. That front motor is integrated

only. That front motor is integrated into the 5 in1 uh package I spoke about earlier. Uh but Rogue will be offered

earlier. Uh but Rogue will be offered with all-wheel drive. So, that adds a second motor to the rear axle.

And that's coming out um later this summer or fall.

Yep. That'll be later this year, 2026.

Yeah.

It's now sitting in the European version of the Nissan Rogue and this has the e- power system.

Although the e- power system that's going to be coming in later this year in the Nissan Rogue for the US market is going to be all-wheel drive. So, it'll

have a little additional power uh uh with the rear motor. So, this is a front-wheel drive version only. Um the

e- power system though um makes this car operate like an EV.

So, right now we're sitting here. The

engine was running just a little bit to get the cabin warm. Um, and now the engine is shut off. And so it's um, sitting as if it was an EV, not making

any noise. We're comfortable in here.

any noise. We're comfortable in here.

And, um, we just I could put it in gear and and I guess. Okay.

And just like that. Now, the engine did kick on as I uh um started to head out, but since the engine isn't directly

connected to the wheels, um there was like zero torque bump for when the engine started. And that's

really nice.

And the the engine running is almost uh like a non-issue.

You you can barely hear it and they they do a pretty good job actually. So the acoustic one of the

actually. So the acoustic one of the problems with a ser a series hybrid is

that in principle the the engine noise is not is disconnected from what the wheels are doing. And so you can have

the awkward situation of the engine running full blast while you're sitting at a light doing nothing. And that's a little disconcerting.

Um they've tuned this such that it doesn't do that. Um so the engine shuts off when you're off and uh and runs low

when you're um idling along in a parking lot and then the engine ramps up as it as the vehicle needs more power. So,

it's uh a little more connected with um how the vehicle operates, which is really nice.

Um but you still have the complete smoothness of an electric vehicle. I

love that.

So highway.

It's pretty damn smooth, I'd have to say. I didn't notice the engine kicking

say. I didn't notice the engine kicking on.

There was a little bit of a growl. You

could just sort of hear faint growl of the engine um as it kicked in.

There means the engine's on. Yeah,

engine's on and it's feeding power to the battery and then the battery feeding power to the electric motor which um this electric motor I think is in common

with the Leaf motor and uh it delivers plenty of power for this vehicle. So

um because it's it doesn't have the giant battery of a typical EV, the car is not overly heavy.

And so 210 horsepower delivers pretty decent acceleration.

Paul, now that we've been cruising around for a little bit, give me your overall impressions.

Well, I think that Nissan's got a winner here that uh this is going to be it's got enough unique personality with the

series hybrid feel to it um that it's going to be a really strong competitor.

I I think that uh Toyota and Honda should be paying attention to what this

car is able to do. Um it's very smooth.

The engine start is completely seamless.

Um and so that that's going to be something that Toyota and Honda are going to have a hard time competing with.

if they can get the highway fuel economy to be competitive, which it sounds like they are able to with uh the engine that they chose, that

1.5 L turbo, um is going to give them good thermodynamic efficiency. And so at

thermodynamic efficiency. And so at highway speed, they're going to be able to do pretty well with a um fuel economy.

And this kind of car makes a lot of sense that uh the average person is going to be able to save hundreds of dollars every year on gas

relative to the ICE version of this same vehicle. So that's why a lot of people

vehicle. So that's why a lot of people are choosing the hybrid.