Nissan ARIYA NISMO (2025 - ) Electric review

Electric SUVs like the Ariya command a chunky premium and adding dual motors and a large battery only bumps up the cost further. The Aryia NISMO is slightly more expensive than rivals such as the Skoda Enyaq vRS, the Volkswagen ID.5 GTX, or the all-wheel drive Tesla Model Y. However, it is cheaper than the much lairier Hyundai Ioniq 5 N. Company car drivers will get the usual Benefit In Kind advantages but the “expensive car tax” will increase the VED for the first few years. Running costs shouldn’t be too high if you can charge at home, but the Ariya NISMO is not very efficient and using public chargers during longer journeys could get expensive.

The Ariya has been around for a little while now, and a quick scan of online forums suggests owners are generally happy with their cars. Thanks to the alliance between Nissan and Renault, the Ayria is closely related to models such as the Scenic E-Tech and the Megane E-Tech so you can take reassurance the underlying tech is tried and tested. For extra peace of mind Nissan offers an industry standard three-year/60,000-mile warranty, which you can extend further for a fee. Meanwhile, the battery is covered by its own eight-year/100,000-mile warranty.

Even the entry-level Ariya gets a good amount of safety kit as standard, including adaptive cruise control, front and rear emergency braking, blind spot monitoring, lane keeping assistance and the car will also alert you if you are about to reverse out into oncoming traffic. The NISMO takes this further with Nissan’s ProPilot Assist Pack which can slow the car to a stop in traffic jams and even steer the car for you, provided you keep your hands on the wheel. The system is set using the buttons on the steering wheel and we like how easy it is to use and how simple it is to switch over to the speed limiter if you prefer using that instead. Also, the head-up display shows all the key information you need so you don’t have to take your eyes off the road.

Just like the regular Ariya, the NISMO has plenty of space inside. There’s no divide between the front passenger footwells which makes the legroom seem vast. In the back there’s a generous amount of room too and the rear doors open nice and wide for easy access. The boot is also a decent size, though it’s not as large as some competitors. This is where the similarity between the standard models and the NISMO ends and the Ariya NISMO is an absolute bone shaker. To the point if you drive over anything but a silky-smooth surface you’ll feel like you’ve been rattling around in a pinball machine! It becomes tiresome incredibly quickly. The seats are firm, and the bolsters aren’t cocooning enough to hold you in place while the car jiggles about. Unlike the Skoda Enyaq vRS there’s no adaptive suspension to soften the ride, so driving around town is particularly unpleasant, though thankfully things do improve as you get up to motorway speeds.

The NISMO is the range-topping version of the Ariya, so it gets plenty of bells and whistles including a Bose sound system, a digital rear view mirror, wireless phone charging, heated front seats, and a heated steering wheel. Like the Kia EV6 there’s a pair of 12.3-inch displays joined together by a single piece of glass. The touch-screen is responsive, but the grey and red graphics are starting to feel a little dated, so you’ll probably be using CarPlay or Android Auto instead. This will be a breeze if you’d got an iPhone thanks to wireless connectivity, but Android users will need to find a cable – an inconvenience which is hard to forgive considering the cost of the car. However, we very much appreciated the super sharp 360-degree cameras for manoeuvring as chunky pillars create a few blind spots at the front and back. We also applaud Nissan for keeping some physical buttons, including the large central volume dial. That said, we are less sold on the 'haptic' temperature controls, which are difficult to find without momentarily looking away from the road.

Not so long ago, a family-size SUV with 435 horsepower and a 0 to 62mph time of five seconds was something to write home about. Yet, electrification has totally moved the goal posts and newer players like the BYD Sealion 7 and MG IM6 already make the Ayria NISMO look slow. However, driving enjoyment is more than just straight-line acceleration. The Ariya NISMO has an adapted version of Nissan's e-4ORCE all-wheel drive system, which has been tuned to send more power to the back of the car while adapting the power to each wheel. This all sounds great, but the reality is the Ariya NISMO is still a heavy car, and you can really feel its bulk in the corners. The brakes aren’t quite responsive enough to make us want to push the car too hard and despite Nissan tuning the steering feel, we’d have liked it to be sharper. Moving though Eco, Standard and NISMO mode, there’s a noticeable difference in the car’s responsiveness, but it never feels jaw-droppingly fast and lacks the drama you’d expect from a car bestowed with a NISMO badge. With the power available there’s still a considerable cost to the efficiency. The Aryia NISMO has an official WLTP range of up to 261 miles which is around 50 miles down on the four-wheel drive Evolve model and you can expect that figure to plummet if you drive the NISMO with gusto.