Nissan X Trail 2023

Is Nissan's innovative new X-Trail hybrid the best new mid-size SUV for Australians?

• Spacious, well-equipped and refined
• Fuel efficiency around town is impressive
• All-wheel-drive system works very well

• Expensive hybrid entry price
• Doesn't have that initial EV acceleration
• Third row is cramped 

2023 Nissan X-Trail Ti-L e-Power

This is our first chance to drive the 2023 Nissan X-Trail, a car that could challenge the Toyota RAV4 for the title of Australia’s favourite mid-size SUV.

In November, the all-new fourth-generation Nissan X-Trail goes on sale in Australia, and it has the potential to springboard Nissan back to the top of the charts.  

Today, however, we’re driving the innovative e-Power hybrid variant, which isn’t due in Oz until February or March next year. The Nissan X-Trail e-Power is in a neck-and-neck race with the smaller Nissan Qashqai e-Power to be Nissan’s first new-generation hybrid SUV (and not related to the earlier Pathfinder hybrid) to arrive in Australia.  

First, let’s take in the 2023 Nissan X-Trail’s headline changes. The new styling is obvious, there are revisions to the model walk, a new hybrid, no more manual or diesel, a significantly improved safety suite and more up-to-date technology. Prices, as a result, have climbed (more below). 

That’s a lot, but the X-Trail is going to need every advantage if it is to successfully battle popular stalwarts like the Toyota RAV4 and Mazda CX-5, and freshly updated rivals like the 2022 Drive Car of the Year winning Kia Sportage, the Hyundai Tucson and Mitsubishi Outlander. 

Medium SUVs are the Goldilocks cars with Australians right now. Almost one in four new cars bought by Australians are medium SUVs.

We love them and we can’t get enough of them. But with upwards of 20 contenders vying for buyer attention, you’ve got to be good to stand out. 

Is the 2023 Nissan X-Trail good enough?

Let’s take a closer look.

How much does the Nissan X-Trail cost in Australia?

Gone are the days when the Nissan X-Trail was one of the cheapest ways into a mainstream mid-size SUV. With this new generation, prices have gone up by around $4000 across the board. That, and the deletion of the price-leading manual option, means it’s now $6085 dearer to get into an X-Trail ST. 

The ST-L is $4515 dearer at $43,190, the Ti has risen $3875 to $49,990. The range-topper – before we include the new hybrids – is the Ti-L, which wasn’t part of Nissan’s runout range. It carries a $52,990 price tag. 

Three-row, seven-seat options for the ST and ST-L add $3040 and also bring all-wheel drive. The Ti and Ti-L are five-seaters only and are all-wheel drive. 

All of those prices are before on-road costs. We won’t know drive-away pricing until Australian sales commence in November. For a full rundown of 2023 Nissan X-Trail price and specifications, click here.

Now, the X-Trail hybrid I’m testing today is a European spec called Tekna and it doesn’t totally correspond to an equivalent Australian specification, but it is closest to our Ti-L.

Its drivetrain is totally relevant to Australians, however. It’s Nissan’s new e-Power system that debuted in Europe on the Qashqai small SUV last month, and is something of a big deal because it will be Nissan’s first implementation of the e-Power system in Australia.

In Australia, the e-Power hybrid powertrain will be offered in Ti and Ti-L trim with a price premium of $4200. In addition to a unique approach to hybrid motoring that promises to reduce your fuel bill by more than 20 per cent, it also brings an upgraded all-wheel-drive system called e-4orce. 

This is an electric all-wheel-drive system that Nissan claims has myriad advantages over the mechanical all-wheel-drive system on standard non-hybrid Ti and Ti-L variants. In fact, Nissan’s long list of advantages – “delivers reassuring a confident acceleration in all conditions [and] delivers better grip, traction and turning ability, enhancing ride and handling” – make you wonder if the X-Trail’s other four-wheel-drive system is any good at all!

The Nissan X-Trail Ti grade comes equipped with leather accented seating, a panoramic sunroof, smart rear-view mirror, tri-zone climate control, head-up display and a power-operated tailgate. It also has a 12.3-inch digital driver’s display and a 12.3-inch multimedia touchscreen with navigation, digital radio and full smartphone integration – wireless for Apple CarPlay but wired for Android Auto – plus a wireless charging mat. 

The Nissan X-Trail Ti-L adds full nappa leather seats with memory function, heated steering wheel, Bose 10-speaker sound system, rear sun blinds, heated rear outboard seats and a handsfree tailgate. 

The X-Trail Ti-L e-Power is the only variant in the X-Trail range to come standard with 20-inch wheels and tyres. The only other specification difference between the Ti and Ti-L hybrid variants compared to their conventionally powered siblings is that they miss out on the temporary-use spare tyre equipped with other X-Trails because the rear electric motor needs the space.

How much space does the Nissan X-Trail have inside?

The external footprint of the new Nissan X-Trail hasn’t changed much compared to the outgoing X-Trail. To be precise, it’s 15mm taller, 20mm wider, 10mm shorter, and the wheelbase is unchanged from the outgoing model.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that means internal space hasn’t changed massively, which may be an issue because the previous-generation X-Trail was not among the most spacious in its class, as our August 2022 Medium SUV Megatest against 10 of its rivals proved. 

But this generation is considerably bigger inside. It’s also more advanced and presents a more premium air on first impressions.

Upper-spec X-Trails get two 12.3-inch digital screens, one for the driver in the instrument binnacle and a second for the multimedia. They’re both ensconced in a leather-wrapped dashboard that uses black wood and chrome accents to lift the vibe. 

X-Trail Ti and Ti-L both get tri-zone climate control, one for each front occupant and a third for the second row. 

In terms of storage space, there’s plenty. Large bottle holders in the door are complemented by cupholders in the two-level centre console, which also has a huge bin on the lower level. The armrest – with its BMW-esque split-opening lid – hides another cavernous storage bin.  

Okay, now to the second row, and straight away I can tell that getting in and out has been made easier by doors that open wider and have less bulk to slide past. The soft thunk the doors make when closed also adds to the air of quality and class.

The seats are very comfortable, if a little lacking in scalloping to keep you stable through corners. The two outboard seats can be heated, and there are central air vents to cool occupants.

Legroom is beyond generous, and underseat footroom is accommodating. Headroom isn’t a problem for anyone up to around 190cm, even under the panoramic sunroof.

If you’re in anything but the base ST model, then the back seat slides fore and aft to increase bootspace – or legroom for third-row occupants. Climbing into the third row is easy enough, with one lever tilting the backrest and allowing the seatbase to slide forward. 

The third row, however, does not have the headroom to accommodate an adult or a teenager, and legroom is only available at the suffrance of second-row occupants. 

The third row is an occasional row only suited to pre-teens. If your children are older, or you envisage needing a third row for adults, the Pathfinder is a more realistic option. That’s not a slight on the X-Trail, more an observation valid across all medium SUVs that claim to offer seven seats. 

The X-Trail’s boot opens electrically – and even has a hands-free mode on the top-spec Ti-L – and is one of the bigger cargo spaces in its class, measuring a decent 585L to the back seats. Those seats fold 60/40 to increase cargo space considerably, but don’t fold flat. 

Hybrid variants lose 10L and also lose the temporary spare tyre that resides under the floor of non-hybrid variants. Seven-seat variants lose another 10L of space in the boot for a total of 565L. Nissan says all measurements are from the floor to the retractable cargo blind.

Does the Nissan X-Trail have Apple CarPlay?

The 2023 Nissan X-Trail is equipped with wireless CarPlay, but if you’re like me and prefer Androids, then smartphone mirroring is only available down the wire, and is not totally reliable. But at least you can leave the wireless charging mat standard on Ti and Ti-L for your partner’s phone. 

Smartphone mirroring is integrated into the massive 12.3-inch central multimedia interface, which also includes satellite navigation and digital radio. A second 12.3-inch digital display takes care of the instruments in the driving cluster. Combined, they lift this cabin’s technology game far beyond the old X-Trail’s now-embarrassing offering. 

The X-Trail Ti and Ti-L variants also have a 10.8-inch head-up display that puts important information like vehicle speed and navigation instructions on the windscreen in front of the driver. 

There are two USB ports up front (one USB-A and one USB-C) and two more (again, one of each format) in the second row.

Is the Nissan X-Trail a safe car?

The fourth-generation X-Trail is yet to be rated by ANCAP or Euro NCAP. We'll know more about the new-gen X-Trail's crashworthiness and collision-avoidance performance once that happens.

What safety technology does the Nissan X-Trail have?

Previously, the X-Trail’s level of safety equipment varied depending on the specification grade – something Nissan has largely remedied with this new generation. 

The 2023 X-Trail’s standard safety equipment from the base ST grade is comprehensive – including intelligent cruise control, a rear cross-traffic alert and assist, active emergency lane keeping, and active blind-spot warning and intervention.

The autonomous emergency braking system can also detect both pedestrians and cyclists, and functions at intersections and in reverse.

The new X-Trail also gets an updated version of Nissan's Pro Pilot Assist driver assistance system, which bundles adaptive cruise-control functions and lane-centring capability together on highways to function as a semi-autonomous driver assist. The system can decelerate to a stop, and then get the vehicle moving again if traffic moves again within three seconds.

The updated version can also adapt the car's speed to other circumstances, such as crossing into a lower speed limit zone. It does this using road signs or, failing that, the navigation's stored road speed data.

During our test drive, all systems worked flawlessly, and none of them gave false positives or proved to be overzealous or absent without leave.

The 2023 X-Trail has seven airbags, including the addition of a front centre airbag, which prevents the front seat occupants from hitting each other in a crash.

In fact, the only things the base model misses out on that ST-L and above get are front parking sensors, surround-view monitor and a tyre pressure monitoring system.

How much does the Nissan X-Trail cost to maintain?

Nissan provides a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty with all its SUVs that also comes with roadside assist and capped-price servicing with intervals of 12 months or 10,000km, whichever comes first. 

We asked Nissan to provide us with servicing costs for the new X-Trail, but these figures have not been finalised.

As this vehicle has not launched in Australia yet, getting a comparable insurance quote is also not possible.

Is the Nissan X-Trail fuel-efficient?

This new X-Trail e-Power has a hybrid powertrain that works a little differently to its rivals. It has a petrol engine and and battery hooked up to electric motors like all hybrids do, but it’s how it uses them that’s different.

Whereas other hybrids use their petrol and electrical power sources in parallel – blending them or isolating them as the situation demands – the Nissan system is a series hybrid.

This means the petrol engine’s only job is to create electrical energy, which it then passes to the battery for storage or to invertors to be fed to the wheels. The petrol engine never directly drives the wheels.

That means it can be a smaller petrol engine, and it is in this case a 1.5-litre three-cylinder unit with variable compression for maximum efficiency.

The battery, which is stored under the passenger seat is a 2.1kWh unit with 1.8kWh of useable charge. It in turn feeds a 150kW motor powering the front axle and a 100kW for the rear axle.

Nissan says it chose to pursue the series hybrid solution rather than leveraging Mitsubishi's plug-in hybrid Outlander powertrain (Nissan and Mitsubishi are part of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance) because it presents a better real-world solution to fuel efficiency.

A Nissan spokesperson told Drive that the vast majority of plug-in hybrids in use in Europe are seldom plugged in, "so owners are dragging 200kg of dead weight everywhere with them". The reason these people are buying plug-ins and then not using them is apparently because of significant purchase incentives offered in overseas markets.

And as for why Nissan avoided the more common parallel closed-loop hybrid solution we've seen on the Toyota RAV4, Nissan claims its solution makes for more refined driving while also providing competitive fuel savings.

Nissan claims the standard 2.5-litre front-drive X-Trail uses 7.4 litres per 100 kilometres. That increases to 7.8L/100km for all-wheel-drive variants. Hybrid X-Trails come with a fuel-efficiency claim of 6.1L/100km, equating to a 22 per cent saving. 

Our test drive in Slovenia took in 200km of freeway, country roads and urban roads, during which the X-Trail hybrid returned an economy average of 7.4L/100km. A second short predominantly urban drive recorded a fuel economy average of just 4.9L/100km, suggesting that this hybrid powertrain can deliver in urban driving. We'd have liked more time in town to confirm that finding, but were unable to do so.

If we use Nissan’s official claimed efficiency numbers (7.8 v 6.1) to run the numbers over a 15,000km year with a fuel price of $1.80 per litre, the hybrid should deliver a fuel saving of $459 per year ($1647 versus $2106).

In Europe, the Nissan X-Trail e-Power requires more expensive 95RON premium unleaded. Nissan Australia is yet to confirm if the vehicle has been certified for more affordable regular unleaded.

What is the Nissan X-Trail like to drive?

In a word, refined. And we sincerely hope the X-Trail’s exemplary on-road manners translate to Australian conditions, because it has the potential to be one of the best in class in this regard. 

Nissan promotes the X-Trail as offering a taste of EV driving with the surety of a petrol-fed touring range. And while that’s not 100 per cent true, the X-Trail e-Power does drive more like an EV than it does a conventional petrol-powered car. 

First and foremost, the e-Power drivetrain’s petrol engine and two electric motors work together seamlessly, delivering smooth acceleration when it's called on. The X-Trail e-Power does not have that characteristic EV light-switch initial acceleration, but it does surge forward with purpose, and pulls strongly right up to highway speeds. 

The one challenge this drivetrain has is helping drivers migrating from traditional petrol- and diesel-powered cars understand that the engine’s noise has nothing to do with the car’s performance. As I said before, the engine is only here to charge the battery, so it can rev at the strangest of times without those climbing revs having any impact on vehicle speed. 

Driving up a long 3km incline, for example, the engine was running most of the time, and at times became quite strident even though I was holding a constant throttle. Clearly I was using up electricity at such a rate that it deemed it necessary to increase the speed at which it was producing more. 

But even when the engine is revving in earnest, it’s still commendably quiet, much quieter than a non-hybrid petrol engine would be in similar conditions. And when the engine is not revving or working, the X-Trail’s serenity is easily among the best in class. 

The X-Trail e-Power’s ride matches this stately grace, gliding smoothly over all but the grumpiest roads, even on the test car’s 20-inch wheels and tyres. Dynamically, the X-Trail is capable and competent, but this is not a car striving to put the sport back in SUV, so it’s not going to wow keen drivers with agility and poise beyond what you’d happily expect of a $60K car weighing 1911kg.

Interestingly, even though Nissan has fitted the X-Trail e-Power with an e-Pedal mode, it’s not a true e-Pedal mode that means you can drive and stop the car by just using one pedal. Apparently, owners of the current Leaf have complained that its e-Pedal set-up, which can bring the vehicle to a complete stop, is too jerky and hard to manage at parking speeds. So, Nissan has softened the X-Trail’s e-Pedal mode so that it never quite brings you to a complete stop.

Should I buy a Nissan X-Trail?

First impressions of this fourth-generation Nissan X-Trail are extremely promising. This all-new car has the size, the space, the safety, and the technology to be attractive to many. The e-Power hybrid is a very impressive powertrain, but is ultimately less compelling because of its price.

It’s simply too expensive to be a volume player. In Ti spec we’re talking close to $58,000 on-road, and the Ti-L spec will take that comfortably beyond $60,000. 

But if we leave the e-Power hybrid aside as nothing more than an eco-friendly headline lure to get buyers into showrooms, then there’s still loads to like in the rest of the package. Once we’ve driven the now more powerful and hopefully more economical 2.5-litre non-hybrid engine, we’ll know for sure if this fourth-generation Nissan X-Trail is the car to take Nissan back towards the top of the list for Australians looking for their next mid-size SUV.

Ratings Breakdown

Nissan X-TRAIL

7.7/ 10

Infotainment & Connectivity

Interior Comfort & Packaging

Glenn Butler is one of Australia's best-known motoring journalists having spent the last 25 years reporting on cars on radio, TV, web and print. He's a former editor of Wheels, Australia's most respected car magazine, and was deputy editor of Drive.com.au before that. Glenn's also worked at an executive level for two of Australia's most prominent car companies, so he understands how much care and consideration goes into designing and developing new cars. As a journalist, he's driven everything from Ferraris to Fiats on all continents except Antarctica (which he one day hopes to achieve) and loves discovering each car's unique personality and strengths. Glenn knows a car's price isn't indicative of its competence, and even the cheapest car can enhance your life and expand your horizons. 

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