Grand Juke of torque
MeeT the new Juke of Sunderland — its hybrid powertrain should help take some of the sting out of those soaring fuel bills. This sportily styled runaround is built in the north-east of england along with its sibling the Qashqai. It has distinctively sharp looks, is a comfortable drive, and its increased efficiency over standard petrol engines means it should be delivering up to 56.5 mpg with CO2 emissions of 114g/km. nissan says the new hybrid represents ‘another milestone’ on its road to electrification.
Prices for the range start from £27,250 with the n-Connecta trim level, which is £1,730 more than the equivalent non-hybrid automatic option, but starts only from the higher trim level. That rises through to Tekna, from £28,750 and Tekna+ from £30,150.
I was driving the early arrival Premiere edition riding on 19 in wheels and priced from £28,250, though the two-tone Storm White
paint with a pearl black roof added another £570 taking the full price up to £28,820. But you’ll have to get in quick as there’s just 750 of these early bird models which arrive in showrooms from July.
To put the prices in context, the cheapest non-hybrid Juke overall is the petrol Visia, from £20,420.
The car combines a 1.6-litre 94 hp petrol engine with a 49 hp (36kW) electric motor to give a combined output of 143 hp — enough to drive from rest to 62 mph in 10.1 seconds and up to a top speed of 103 mph.
The Juke always pulls away in pure eV electric mode and — if you drive smoothly and are not too heavy on the gas — can continue this up to 34 mph.
But the real benefit and genius is how the engine, battery and electric motor work seamlessly together to deliver the most efficient combination of energy use. You can watch it on your dashboard screen as the flows go back and forth, but perhaps not while driving as it could prove a hypnotic distraction.
There are new colours: Magnetic Blue and Ceramic Grey and new 17 and 19 in alloys.