2023 Nissan Ariya First Drive | Nissan’s First Electric SUV | Interior, Driving Impressions & More

Hey, it's Ryan from Edmunds, and today I'm getting to know the 2023 Nissan Ariya. What is that? Well, it's a fully electric crossover from Nissan, and it's finally real. But is it any good? After all, Nissan has been building electric vehicles since the original LEAF in 2011. The Ariya is the result of more than a decade of learning and understanding being poured into a brand new model, so it had better be good. Let's dive in and find out. Since we're going to be spending some time together, go ahead and click that like button and that subscribe button so we can make more videos just like this one. Also, if you want to sell your car, go to edmunds.com slash sellmycar and you'll get a cash offer on that baby right now. So this is the Ariya. What do we think of the look? In the comments below, give me one word that comes to mind when you see the look of this thing. Can't wait to see what you got. For me, on first impression, the Ariya looks a little bit generic. But when you get closer and spend some more time with it, there are some cool features that stand out. First of all, I think that sloping fastback roofline comes off really nicely. I like these big, beefy fenders, too. And there's a cool lighting signature and a nice backlit feature that really makes it stand out at night. What I especially like is that the Ariya doesn't really look like any other Nissan, doesn't really look like a LEAF. It's just Ariya. OK, but what about the important stuff? Well, the Ariya is a compact crossover, so four doors up to five passengers. It's about the size of a Rogue, if that helps. Now, you can get all wheel drive versions, but initially, all of the Ariya deliveries are going to be front wheel drive like this one. The Ariya is the first model for a new electric vehicle platform. That's going to be shared with Nissan, Mitsubishi and Renault. So globally, there will be 15 different models that come off of this EV platform. Fifteen. Like I said, this has to be good. Maximum range? Nissan says that certain trims of the Ariya can go up to 304 miles on a single charge. We won't be able to put that to the test today, but as soon as we get an Ariya back to our headquarters, we'll put it on the Edmunds EV test loop. And what do you say we drive it? Nissan says its LEAF owners have logged more than 8 billion miles in their cars. The company should have a pretty good understanding of how electric vehicles should drive. And my first impressions on the Ariya have been pretty good. But first, I want to talk about the different versions you can get. Let's talk front wheel drive models first, since those are the ones that are going to be delivered initially. There is a smaller battery option. That one's a 63 kilowatt hour pack, making about 214 horsepower. But this one that I'm driving is the Premier. And along with some other trims, it gets an extended battery pack, 87 kilowatt hours and 238 horsepower. Just driving around town, this is really smooth, really well executed. It's not jerky at all when you come on the throttle or come off it and the regenerative brakes pop on. Instead, it's a really smooth, nice ride, which I think is important. It shows that the company knows how to do a refined electric vehicle. What does that 238 horsepower feel like on the road? Well, when you step on it, there's a nice initial burst and then it smooths out and becomes very linear. It's not the most power in the world. This is not a performance electric SUV by any means, but there is plenty of muscle when you need it. That's what's important. As for the regenerative braking, the braking system will allow you to come off the throttle and just coast. It slows you down slightly, but not too much. And I like the fact that it allows you to just coast because a lot of electric vehicles don't. Then when you get into the brake pedal, it's really smooth, consistent, no surprises. Again, that's not how it is with all EVs. So you know, this is saying something here. If you want to strengthen the regenerative braking, Nissan has a little button down here to activate what it calls E-step. Now that makes it more forceful when you come off the accelerator. So when I let off of the pedal, there's a little bit more force there, but it's not as much as many EVs. It focuses on smoothness here for sure. On the plus side, that helps you slow down in a hurry without having to touch the brake pedal. On the downside for a lot of EV owners anyway, it will not go all the way to a stop. So true one-pedal driving is not really possible in the Ariya, at least not now. Steering and handling wise, I'm pretty impressed so far. Steering wheel feels pretty responsive. And yes, of course, electric vehicles have their batteries under the floor, so they have a low center of gravity. But I've been kind of surprised lately how many EVs still feel like they're wobbling around when you go through a hard turn. And I haven't noticed that yet in the Ariya, so that's a good sign. And then another point I want to touch on is the NVH here, or how quiet it is in the cabin. Now, at low speeds going around the city, this is great. You really don't get much sound at all inside the car. The motor is quiet, the wind outside is quiet, so is the road noise. You just don't get very much. It feels like a solidly constructed cabin with pretty airtight seals. When you leave the city and get on the highways, you will feel more noise. I mean, first of all, there's no engine to drown out the wind and everything, but I am noticing that that airtight quality goes away just a little bit, feeling like more wind is getting in and interrupting that silence I was enjoying so much. But there's more good news to add, and that is the ride quality. I feel like the Ariya has really figured out its suspension geometry, and a lot of that is that heavy battery pack on the bottom keeping the car close to the ground. But I haven't noticed harsh vibrations or really big jolts when I go over cracks in the road. This has been a very nice composed ride so far. There's a lot to like here. As for all-wheel drive models, you can get that same smaller battery pack or the extended version. But what's nice is you have an electric motor on the front wheels and on the rear wheels, giving you that all-wheel drive. But because you've got two motors, you can get up to 389 horsepower. Yes, 389. I feel like that's a big differentiator between the Ariya and some of its competitors that don't offer bigger horsepower versions. Can't wait to drive that one. We're going to have to wait a little while, though. The Ariya's all-wheel drive system is called Force. And yes, tragically, that's Force with a 4. The last thing I want to touch on about driving the Ariya is its hands-free driving system. I didn't get a chance to film it, but ProPILOT Assist 2.0 works just like Adaptive Cruise Control. It automatically keeps distance and speed without you needing to touch the accelerator or the brakes. But it takes it to another level by also allowing you to take your hands off the wheel. It can even make lane changes when you use the turn signal and keep your hands on the wheel. Now, I only used it briefly, but it felt good and seems comparable to Blue Cruise from Ford and Super Cruise from General Motors. The interior is one area where EVs can really separate from one another. And I feel like Nissan has really done a nice job of that with the Ariya. The aesthetic is minimalist, but very sleek at the same time. There are a few ways that this is illustrated most clearly. The first is the amount of wood in here. From this portion stretching along the dash to this center console, it's just a really nice feeling. And the second thing is the way that the buttons and controls are integrated in here. You've got your climate up on the wood, and the same thing with these controls down here. So you do get haptic feedback when you press on them hard, so you know that you pressed it. But there's no cutouts for the buttons. Everything's just real smooth and looks really nice. Up front, you've got two screens in front of the driver. One directly in front of the driver, the digital display, and one center touchscreen. Both of them are 12.3 inches. Both of them are standard on every Ariya. On top of all that, Nissan did put some pretty flashy, cool features in here. The first thing is this relatively flat floor and open tunnel space out here. Since you don't have a traditional transmission tunnel, you've got all this space, and they opted to leave it open. It just makes me a little bit nervous when something could potentially roll over from side to side and get under your feet. But maybe I'm overreacting. Let me know what you think in the comments. It is nice to have a big, airy, open feel in here. Elsewhere, that big center console I was talking about earlier, you've got buttons right here to power adjust it, move it all the way forward, or move it back, depending on where you want it to be. You press this button right here, and watch this. Got a little storage space that pops out. Throw some extra cords or stuff in there. And then with another press, it just goes right back in. Now that feature is cool, but it brings up the issue of storage, and that bin is going to be helpful because you don't get much in here. If you open this up, there is a charging pad for your phone, which is great, but that's all you get in the center console storage area. So maybe enough for some keys or earrings or a watch, and that's about it. Last and final thing is this rear view mirror camera. This is coming on a lot of cars now, but it's just really nice to have, and that is something that I think lends to the more futuristic tech feel that the Aria deserves. To the back. First things first. Nice, tall opening, so I didn't have to duck too much to get in, and a pretty flat floor so I didn't have to lift my legs over either. Something that some EVs struggle with is having a big, bulky sill right there that you gotta swing your legs over. Not so here, really. Again, you've got a nice, flat floor, so a big, airy space, and at six feet, I've got a lot of room back here. I can sit back and settle in nicely. I've still got lots of legroom, and if I want max legroom, that's pretty good size. So even though the Aria is about the size of a Rogue, it's got the wheelbase of a bigger Murano. And so you can see where they put most of that space, here in the legroom. I've also got pretty good headroom, even though we've got a big panoramic sunroof in here. Nissan didn't leave the back seat completely bare, so rear passengers do get some of the same cool amenities as the front ones. So you've got nice, cool textures here and soft surfaces, buttons for your heated seats, and two USB ports. Let's talk cargo space. First thing to know, even though this is an electric vehicle, there is no frunk. I don't understand this. You've got no engine up front. You've got a brand new platform. You can design anything in the world that you want, and you decide not to put a storage space and utilize that extra room. I don't know why. Well, we better move on before I get too upset about it. In the back, you've got over 22 cubic feet of space behind the rear seats. That's a good amount of space, as you can see, but it does pale in comparison to competitors like the VW ID.4 and the Tesla Model Y. However, it is pretty deep in there. The load floor is a little high, but there's a nice wide opening, so it's still a pretty usable space. And if you fold down those second row seats, you get over 59 cubic feet of space, which is much more in line with the comfort. The Ariya does have a cool trick feature, though, this divide and hide system. So you can lift up one panel or even two and get my laptop bag in there and close it up, and you're not going to be able to see it from the outside. And you can still use all of this space. So there is a nice usability factor in here, but not a whole lot to really wow me if cargo space is super important to you. When it comes to charging, Nissan has two main components inside the new Ariya that are competent, but not necessarily wowing anybody. The first is the onboard charger, which is rated at 7.2 kilowatts. Now that's more than a Toyota BZ-4X, but less than most competitors. And so it's just going to limit the max amount of electricity you can put into the car at one time. On top of that, the architecture is a 400-volt system. Again, that's pretty standard for most EVs these days, but some of them, like the Hyundai IONIQ 5, go above and beyond up to 800 volts, which will just give you a faster max charge. When it comes to actually charging the Ariya, all you do is pop open this door flap here and you've got the connectors. Now, this is a departure from the LEAF. For the Ariya, Nissan is using a CCS system, and that just means you've got two ports, one for traditional AC slow charging and one for DC fast charging. This is just becoming a more universally accepted charging system in the U.S., and so they wanted the Ariya to have something that would be easy for U.S. buyers to use. It's got pretty good capability, too. Nissan says you can charge from 20% to 80% battery life in as little as 35 minutes, depending on the charger and trim level you have. If you're thinking about getting an Ariya, there is an incentive that you should know about. Contact your dealer and see if you can qualify for up to $500 in credits at EVgo charging stations. It's a pretty sweet deal. On top of that, Nissan dealers have free fast charging as well. Now, those aren't super fast. Most of them are going to be limited to just 30 kilowatts. But if you're visiting the dealership already or you just happen to be in town, it's nice to stop in and plug in for free. What is all that going to cost you? Well, the 2023 Ariya is starting just over $44,000, including destination. And this particular model is going to run you closer to $56,000. If you want the all-wheel drive models that will eventually come out in 2023, tack on about an extra $4,000, depending on which trim you're looking for. Now, Nissan is fighting hard to be included in those new round of federal tax credits that are available. As of right now, there's not a lot of information, so be sure to check back to Edmunds.com for all the latest or give your dealer a call and see what information they can give you. I found my first drive with the Ariya to be pretty pleasant. And thankfully, there are no fatal flaws, at least on first impression. You know, something like the Toyota BZ4X having pretty bad ergonomics or the Volkswagen ID.4 having really annoying touch-sensitive controls. The Ariya doesn't really make any unforced errors like that, other than spelling force with a four. But is it good enough? Still not sure. We'll have to wait until we can get an Ariya back into the Edmunds lab and do our full round of comprehensive tests before we truly know where it stacks up against the competition. I'm also looking forward to getting into that all-wheel drive Ariya in a few months' time, so stay tuned for that. As for now, I gotta go find some food with an F, not a four.