The 2023 Nissan Ariya Empower+ is a feature-packed EV with an interior that would look right at home in the company's premium Infiniti brand. This is an almost completely loaded-up front-wheel-drive model with a single, 238-horsepower motor and an estimated range of 289 miles on a single charge. The Ariya is Nissan's second volume-oriented EV. It debuted more than a decade after the value-oriented Nissan Leaf, and offers a far more robust, modern and capable powertrain as a result. It's approximately the size of Nissan's gas-burning Rogue crossover and offers similar utility, albeit with a compromised cargo area thanks to the sloped rear glass. It's not the most engaging EV on the road, but it is quiet, comfortable and very relaxing to drive.
To read more about the 2023 Nissan Ariya Empower+:
https://www.autoblog.com/2022/10/15/2023-nissan-ariya-first-drive-review/
To learn more about Nissan:
https://www.autoblog.com/buy/2023-Nissan-ARIYA/
TranscriptBYRON HURD: Hey, everybody. I'm Byron and in the Autoblog Garage this week, we've got the 2023 Nissan Ariya. This is their new EV. So they now have two in their lineup. They originally had just the LEAF. And now, we get this, a big, all-wheel drive, parentheses, available, crossover, about the size of a Rogue.
Now with this-- this is a front-wheel drive model. And most of the affordable ones are. You're looking at 238 horsepower, 221 pounds feet of torque. And again, front-wheel drive, which is a little weird for EVs. Now that we're experimenting with electric motors, you'd think, hey, we can put them anywhere it fits in the car, right? Well, Nissan chose front wheel drive because it's conventional, safe, and simple. And this is what we get.
This car checks in just north of about $56,000. It is not cheap, but it is fairly loaded up. In fact, this particular Ariya has just about everything, except for Nissan's new ProPILOT assist 2.0, which is their highway semi self-driving software. So that'll get you from exit to exit without having to touch the wheel, assuming you're on highways. They're actually programmed to work with it.
It looks pretty good. It's big enough for the whole family. We're going to check this whole thing out, see what's special about it. All right, so looking at the front of the Ariya, as with any EV, you can tell they went to pretty extreme lengths to keep air from getting into this thing because drag is the enemy of efficiency. There are air curtains on both sides. As you can see, I can stick my fingers right in there. This will allow air to go in here and be pushed out around the wheels. This actually improves the aerodynamic performance.
The only other things you really see here-- we've got this grille insert, which has some etching on it so there's something interesting to look at when you get up close. But for the most part, it's very smooth. You've got the sensors for your parking and all that. And it's actually kind of interesting here. The sensors in the corners are set back next to the air curtains, which means as you're approaching an object really close, it actually knows how close you are. It's not pointed way out here where it's telling you, oh yeah, your car is getting close, but really, you've got an entire foot here because of the way it's shaped. So the fact that it's all nicely tightly packaged, actually really advantageous, especially if you're used to maneuvering in really tight spots.
All right, just to try to give you all a sense of how big this thing is. When you have a new EV, it's kind of hard to place it in the lineup, especially if it's not based on something that's a pre-existing model. So in this case, this is the size of a Nissan Rogue, give or take, but it really has nothing in common with it. It's just a footprint.
These are actually 19-inch wheels, believe it or not. This might just look like a compact hatchback. But these big wheels look tiny on this car, especially with the contrasting fenders and all that. Some more elements on the side here worth noting. We've got the charge port here on the passenger front, which might be tricky for some people, depending on where you've had your charger installed.
We have the cameras here for the 360-degree surround view system. And moving back, you can see we have a very sloped roof here. This is actually a somewhat compromised cargo setup. It's not as roomy as a Rogue in the back, but you do still at least get a full lift back. So there is room to put some taller items in there, even if the greenhouse is a bit compromised.
And the aero doesn't really end at the front. This is an EV, of course, we got to smooth out that airflow everywhere we possibly can. And in this case, we see they have these two large inserts in the spoiler here above the liftback. You can actually stick your hand all the way through there to the glass. And underneath, it's been smoothed out. There's no fancy diffuser or anything like that. But it is painted. It is shiny. It is very smooth in there. To help the air coming out from underneath the car, make sure there's no lift, it just goes straight out the back.
Now, one more item before we get inside this thing. I just want to point out that it's very unusual, in fact, maybe the only example of two sharkfin antennas being placed on the top of a car. This is just weird. This isn't like, oh, this is something we need to like put in a record book. But when you look at this, they're nice and aerodynamic, right? So this makes sense on an EV. But why two of them?
Because usually, you get all of your fancy, like, 4G, 5G, all your cellular communication everything goes through one of these, while your AM/FM radio-type stuff goes into an antenna that's built into the glass in one of the rear windows, which we don't have here. In fact, [KNOCKS] the rear windows on this aren't windows. They're just plastic.
So what we have here is a dual setup. What I'm actually betting we're seeing is one for all of your basic navigation and your phone connectivity and things like that, and another one for Nissan's ProPILOT assist 2.0. That's the semi-hands-free driving setup. And that probably needs its own communications channel for talking to the mothership. So I'm betting that's why we've got two here. But if you can find another car that has two of these let us know, because I don't think we've ever seen one.
More than once in my career doing this, I've sat down in an Infinity, looked at the interior, and thought, you know what? This really would have fit better in a Nissan. This is the first time I've sat down in a Nissan and thought, this interior should have been in an Infinity. It is genuinely nice in here.
And while some materials aren't really EV friendly, you know, leather maybe not the most eco-friendly of materials to use, we have lots of imitation materials in here that do a good job of looking like natural, but not being natural. And so we have this nice faux wood dash trim here, which incorporates the touch-sensitive controls. Not our favorite. We wish these were switches and knobs. But welcome to EVs, I guess.
The center console here, nicely laid out. Again, we have more touch-sensitive controls here in the surface. There's also this nice hideaway cup holder that'll hold multiple sizes of drinks, and a wireless charging pad. As you can see here, it'll fit a larger cell phone and a case, which is quite nice, something that BMW can't say about its wireless charging pads, I'll note.
But one shortfall here, there's not a ton of storage space, certainly not a ton of secured storage space. We do have a glove box, which is, you know, fine. And we have this little cubby area underneath here. But it's rather limited, nothing like what we had in our long-term Kia EV6, which was frankly, quite generous when it came to internal cubbies and storage. But really, that's the only negative thing we have to say about this car apart from the lack of physical controls. It is really impressive in here, and I don't have to say, "for a Nissan."
Now, just in case you were worried that Nissan skimped out on the back seats in order to make the front seats look good, not really the case here. As you can see, we have these nice little faux suede inserts here, probably an Alcantara or something along those lines. And there is plenty of headroom back here. Granted, I'm not particularly tall. But even with the sculpting of the rear roofline that makes it look kind of coupe-like, still good headroom here that doesn't taper off until you get behind the rear seat.
You can also see here we've got a USB 3.0 type C charger there and a regular type A charger, and nice little add on here-- heated seats for the rear. So you know, looking at this, relatively comfortable, certainly on par, if not better than most of what you'll get from typical compact crossovers. So, hey, you know, always good to get an EV that doesn't have any of the drawbacks you normally associate with it, right?
OK, so several times we've mentioned the fact that the greenhouse on this slopes back a little more aggressively than it does on most compact crossovers. And that does impact cargo space. How much? Well, a Nissan Rogue has 36.1 cubic feet of rear cargo room. This has only 22.8. So a Rogue gets half again, more rear cargo space, and most of it is vertical space. So you're losing the ability to carry larger, taller items, and you're losing a good third of the cargo volume that you would normally get with a Rogue.
The good news is, you do still have this handy little floor system. So there is room to fit some items beneath. And you can remove these panels to fit taller objects if you want. But they won't fit the full width of the rear cargo area. So it is compromised.
And keep in mind, there are all-wheel drive versions of this. And that's why the floor is higher because you need to be able to fit the motor underneath, right? So it's not as good as a Rogue in terms of general capability, but it's getting pretty close. And frankly, if you really need all that extra space, you probably want something bigger anyway.
All right, this is going to be fun. We don't normally get to look under the hood of EVs, either because there isn't an under hood-- looking at you, Germany-- or because there's a funk or something like that. In this case, neither. We've got all the electronics here on display.
It's hard to see exactly what's going on. But buried down in there is the 238-horsepower motor, which is attached to the 91-kilowatt hour battery. It's good for 289 miles of range in this configuration. The base Ariya gets a smaller motor and a smaller battery, good for only 216 miles. But if you're looking for a front-wheel drive model with lots of range, this is the one to get.
Any one of these larger motor, front-wheel drive models will get you this range. And the all-wheel drive ones will get you even more power and range. But that is something entirely separate from what we're looking at today.
All right, folks, that's the 2023 Nissan Ariya, starting at about $55,000 for the Empower Plus model, 289 miles of range, 238 horsepower, all-electric, and all right to look at too. Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe and let us know what you think in the comments below. Thanks a lot.
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