Next-gen Nissan Qashqai spied
● Next Qashqai caught on camera for the first time, to be built in UK ● Full reveal expected late this year, with range to include a hybrid
THIS is our first look at the thirdgeneration Nissan Qashqai SUV, spied in the hands of company engineers ahead of its full debut towards the end of 2020.
It’s a hugely important car for Nissan and the British motor industry as a whole. Not only is the Qashqai one of the most popular crossovers on sale in the UK, it’s also the most mass-produced car in Britain, with Nissan’s Sunderland plant building 257,851 examples in 2019.
This new model will be built there too, as part of a £400million investment in the plant revealed by Nissan in March.
The car in these first spy shots is a late development mule wearing near-production bodywork under heavy camouflage. It’s difficult to make out fine details, but the new exterior design is likely to echo that of the next X-Trail, which was leaked earlier this year in a series of patent images.
Spy shots show that the headlights will become slimmer, with the grille growing in size, while the Qashqai is likely to embrace a sportier overall image, as was hinted at by the IMQ concept car revealed at the Geneva Motor Show in 2019.
However, it’ll be a more evolutionary redesign compared with the changes Nissan has applied between the first and second generation versions of the
Juke, above which the Qashqai will sit in the company’s line-up.
The new model is expected to continue with a heavily updated version of the current car’s underpinnings. The CMF platform will be completely revised so Nissan can offer a hybrid variant of the Qashqai for the first time, although it appears that a plug-in hybrid version may not appear.
Nissan recently announced plans to focus on the North American, Chinese and Japanese markets, as part of a major strategy shift across the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance. However, as part of that, the brand will only launch one plug-in electric vehicle in Europe by 2023, with the rest of its electrified line-up consisting of conventional E-Power hybrids and pure-electric vehicles.
With just one PHEV planned, Nissan could look to reserve that technology for the next-generation X-Trail, leveraging the tech used on the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV.
A pure-electric version of the Qashqai won’t happen, but Nissan will build a similar-size electric SUV, the Ariya, which will use a purpose-made EV platform.
“New Qashqai is likely to embrace a sportier image, hinted at by IMQ concept“