Nissan’s Third-Gen e-POWER Technology Eliminates Range Anxiety

Nissan’s third-generation e-POWER technology has well and truly eliminated range anxiety following a mammoth test drive of 1, 347 km or 837 miles on a single tank of petrol. Engineers successfully completed the legendary Land’s End to John O’Groats journey with fuel to spare.

They drove two Qashqai e-POWER vehicles the full length of the UK in 18 hours with 160 km or 100 miles of fuel left in the tank. The journey was spread over two days by experts from Nissan Technical Centre Europe (NTCE) in Cranfield, Bedfordshire. The team achieved 75 MPG or 3.76L/100km on the journey.

In 2007 the original Qashqai 1.5dCi Diesel completed the same route, setting a benchmark for fuel efficiency – averaging 67.35 MPG or 4.2L/100km. The Qashqai e-POWER vehicles pulled off their achievement with a smaller fuel tank by 10 litres.

“Driving the Qashqai e-POWER from Land’s End to John O’Groats really showcased the strength of the new powertrain,” said Dean Driver, Vehicle Evaluation Engineer, and one of the drivers in the challenge.

“Not only did it deliver a smooth and quiet drive throughout the journey, but we completed over 800 miles with fuel still in the tank—proving just how far this technology has come in combining range with refinement.”

Unlike traditional hybrids, the Qashqai e-POWER system uses a petrol engine solely to generate electricity, which in turn powers an electric motor that drives the wheels. This means the wheels are driven only by electric power, delivering instant torque, smooth acceleration, and a quieter ride – all without the need to plug in.

The new e-POWER 5-in-1 powertrain integrates key components including the electric motor, generator, inverter, increaser and reducer to a completely new redesigned 1.5 litre turbo engine. It also adopts Nissan’ s proprietary STARC combustion concept, which has lifted thermal efficiency to 42% – an exceptionally high level – by stabilising in-cylinder combustion, which enables the engine to operate more quietly and effectively at lower speeds.

Qashqai with New e-POWER