2023 Nissan X-Trail ST-L e-Power review

Nissan’s roll-out of its e-Power hybrid system in Australia has been slow. Despite years of offering the system in various vehicles overseas, Australia’s first taste came with the X-Trail – although only in high-spec models initially.

With the introduction of the 2023 Nissan X-Trail ST-L e-Power, the price of Nissan’s hybrid SUV becomes more accessible. A $4700 step down to the hybrid ST-L brings pricing under the magic $50,000 mark (before on-road costs) and opens the e-Power system up to a broader scope of buyers.

Mechanically (and electrically) the X-Trail ST-L is identical to the higher-grade models. If you can live without some of the extra luxe and tech features available in the flagship models, this new addition might be the right fit for your family.

Pricing for the X-Trail ST-L e-Power hybrid starts from $49,990 plus on-road costs. There’s no like-for-like comparison in the petrol ST-L range, though, with the e-Power providing five seats and all-wheel drive, compared to a choice of either five seats with two-wheel drive, or seven seats and all-wheel drive in the petrol range.

Compared to the five-seat ST-L 2WD the hybrid is a $6300 step up, or next to the seven-seat AWD model hybrid power represents a $3200 premium.

The hybrid ST-L also hovers close in price to the non-hybrid X-Trail Ti (offered with five seats and all-wheel drive) at just $500 less than the higher-equipped model. The hybrid ST-L also clocks in at $4700 less than the hybrid Ti.

Nissan’s X-Trail e-Power range now covers ST-L, Ti, and Ti-L grades with only the base model ST not offered with the fuel-saving hybrid tech. For now, at least.

Like the petrol model, hybrid X-Trail ST-L variants come with 18-inch alloy wheels, faux-leather trim, heated front seats, powered driver’s seat, dual-zone climate control, and an 8.0-inch touchscreen with digital radio, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, but no satellite navigation.

Some e-Power-specific touches include interior noise cancelling, low-speed pedestrian alert, and a black grille surround with a thin chrome strip, in place of the chrome-trimmed grille of the petrol model.

In terms of competition, Toyota’s RAV4 is the most popular hybrid medium SUV in Australia, despite massive waiting lists for delivery. The GWM Haval H6 offers much lower pricing for similarly sized packaging topping out at $46K drive-away, while the Honda CR-V hybrid comes in top-spec guise only with a near-$60K drive-away price, or the smaller ZR-V hybrid is available for $5000 less.

On the plug-in side of the hybrid coin, there’s value in the form of the MG HS +EV, and a good match for features and price in the Outlander PHEV range.

Nissan breaks the medium SUV mould just a little by offering an interior that isn’t just basic black. That’s an encouraging start.

The black and brown colour scheme isn’t exactly ground-breaking, but it’s just subtle enough to add a point of difference. Encouragingly, though, rather than meddle with the formula of a roomy and practical interior, the X-Trail sticks with convention when it comes to spaciousness. That’s no bad thing.

There’s a good amount of storage for front seat occupants with two cupholders, large bottle holders in the doors, and a segmented centre console storage compartment with a butterfly-opening lid. There’s a tray under the climate controls that makes it easy to toss in your keys and wallet, etc, but while this area serves as a wireless charge pad in the Ti, it lacks charging in the ST-L.

Worth a call-out, the lack of wireless charging and auto wipers – small items, but worthy ones – feels a bit light-handed on Nissan’s behalf in a $50,000 model.

Comfy front seats served me, as a shorter driver, well. The power adjustment makes it easy to find the right position, but there’s no memory recall if you share your car with another driver. Seat heating is welcomed for chilly mornings too.

Rear seat access is enhanced by wide-opening doors that open up to almost 90 degrees, making it easy to bundle yourself or little ones into the rear.

Rear seat space is well proportioned. Stadium-style seating raises the rear bench for improved visibility. Head room and leg room are generous, and the rear bench can be reclined for some added cruising comfort – or to improve the fit of support seats.

Outboard seating positions are equipped with ISOFIX mounting points, while all three rear positions feature a top-tether child seat mount. The seatback can also be folded in a 40:20:40 split to tailor passenger and cargo accommodation, with the rear seat able to be slid backwards and forwards.

With 575 litres of cargo space in total, the X-Trail e-Power drops 10L compared to a five-seat petrol X-Trail. Divide and Hide boot flooring allows the boot to be split, but some of the underfloor storage normally found beneath the floor is occupied by the hybrid system’s battery. Access is via a manually hosted tailgate with no power assist.

Because of the complications of accommodating the hybrid system, there’s no place to stow the cargo blind, nor is there a spare tyre (either full-size or space-saver), with a tyre repair kit fitted instead. Overall, the move to accommodate the hybrid system feels a bit half-done with the neat boot-organising touches from the petrol X-Trail going missing.

Nissan’s current-generation infotainment platform is consistent across most of the brand’s range, offering an easy-to-use interface, though graphics may not be the slickest around, and on test there were a few times where, right after start-up, the reverse camera would cut out as the system booted up in the background and refreshed over the camera view.

In the ST-L, an 8.0-inch touchscreen provides access to AM, FM and digital radio bands and comes with access to Apple CarPlay and Android Auto – both via a wired connection. Whereas some brands offer only a single port for smartphone mirroring, the X-Trail at least allows you to screencast your phone via either the USB-A or USB-C port up front.

Bluetooth phone and audio streaming are also included, but satellite navigation isn’t offered on the ST-L.

The infotainment system is backed up by a 7.0-inch digital display positioned between analog dials in the instrument cluster. One for speed, the other for power use and hybrid regen status.

Nissan doesn’t yet offer a companion app or remote connection services in Australia, so it’s not possible to lock and unlock, or check vehicle fuel or position remotely.

All Nissan X-Trail variants, be they hybrid or petrol-powered, share the same five-star ANCAP rating from 2021.

The X-Trail carries a 91 per cent Adult Occupant Protection rating, a 90 per cent Child Occupant Protection rating, and an impressive 97 per cent Safety Assist systems rating, only the Vulnerable Road User Protection rating (for pedestrians and cyclists) falls lower at 74 per cent. 

The Nissan X-Trail range is backed up by a hefty list of standard safety equipment. All models in the range come with forward and reverse autonomous emergency braking with front and rear pedestrian and front cyclist detection, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, lane-keep assist, traffic sign recognition, and auto high-beam headlights.

The ST-L, in either e-Power or petrol guise, adds in a few extras including front park sensors (in addition to rear sensors), tyre pressure monitoring, 360-degree cameras, and Nissan’s ProPilot that adds lane-centring for assisted cruise control in highway conditions. The e-Power hybrid models also add a low-speed pedestrian warning sound.

Features like adaptive headlights and rain-sensing wipers aren’t available on the X-Trail ST-L, but can be found on the Ti, one grade up.

In a mix of traffic conditions, from the heavily trafficked weekday commute to near-empty freeway runs, the X-Trail’s support systems didn’t appear to put a foot wrong. The ProPilot system isn’t really advanced enough to take over from the driver – which is no bad thing, as it still requires the driver to keep their focus on the road. It is handy for taking some of the effort out of long stints at the wheel, though.

Nissan covers the X-Trail with a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty, and five years of roadside assist.

Nissan dealers offer capped-price servicing for the X-Trail e-Power, or the options of prepaid servicing plans. If you pay as you go you’ll pay $1371 over three years or $2353 over five years for scheduled maintenance. If you opt for a prepaid plan servicing costs $1235 for three years, or $2113 over five years.

Service intervals are 12 months or 10,000km (whichever occurs first). Shorter than the 15,000km intervals offered on most rivals, and inside of the 12,000 to 15,000km estimate for the average Aussie motorist.

As a snapshot of insurance costs, our standard policy for a private-use, garaged car came to $1422 per year based on a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male driver living in Chatswood, NSW. Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history, and personal circumstances.

In the world of hybrid medium SUV claims, the X-Trail is positioned a little towards the high end. The RAV4 hybrid leads the pack with a 4.8 litres per 100 kilometres claim, with all-wheel drive. Front-drive hybrids like the GWM Haval H6 and Honda CR-V claim 5.2L/100km and 5.5L/100km respectively. Nissan’s hybrid X-Trail sits higher still at a claimed 6.1L/100km.

While that looks unimpressive on paper, in my week behind the wheel the fuel-use figure settled at 6.4L/100km – impressively close to Nissan’s claim. While it does require slightly more expensive 95-octane premium unleaded, the X-Trail is capable of covering over 850km on a single tank (based on our as-tested figure), which is more than enough to minimise stops at the service station.

I really liked the feel from behind the wheel of the X-Trail – but then sometimes I didn’t enjoy it so much.

Because the e-Power hybrid system is always (and only) driven by its electric motors, it feels much like an electric car, with seamless acceleration from standstill all the way to highway speeds.

There’s no CVT or regular automatic to cause delays in power delivery. If you sink the boot in, it’ll surge ahead with rapid reflexes.

For a lot of buyers seeking a smooth and simple driving experience, Nissan’s hybrid system ticks a lot of boxes – and unlike Toyota’s hybrid system that can drive on petrol or electric, or a combination of both, there’s no pause of handover between powertrains.

This is, essentially, an electric car. Albeit one that has a very small battery, and carries a petrol-powered generator with it everywhere it goes. Petrol generators are interesting little things. If you’ve ever been to an outdoor event and walked around the back of the catering trucks, you might have seen compact generators vibing away making barely a murmur. That’s not how Nissan’s system works.

Because the small battery needs to be topped up often, the engine kicks in regularly. On the highway it runs almost constantly, and at high speeds you’ll barely notice – with wind noise and road bumps all but filtering the engine feedback out.

Around town the petrol engine is more obvious, and at times can kick in at high revs and sound quite clattery and obtrusive when it does so. It’s a three-cylinder engine too, and they have a distinct sound and character that isn’t always as calm as a typical four-cylinder engine.

In saying that, I’m casting a highly critical eye over this whole system. After a few weeks of ownership I reckon few will notice, but it would be nice if Nissan could hone the refinement a little further.

The same goes for road noise. Even on smooth blacktop the X-Trail’s tyres kick up a din for occupants, and while there is a noise-cancelling system, it doesn’t seem to be able to overrule the road roar.

Drive modes allow you to switch between Auto, Eco and Sport settings. Eco really pulls back the acceleration urge and ups the amount of coasting regeneration, Sport does the reverse and makes the accelerator more responsive to inputs, though arguably the X-Trail is nippy enough to not really need this.

There’s also an e-Pedal mode that enhances the energy recuperation as you lift off the accelerator. It doesn’t feel as fluent or cohesive as a true one-pedal mode, like you’d find in an EV, and doesn’t bring the car to a complete halt, which is something of a positive and makes close parking manoeuvres easier.

Ride quality felt decent. Nicely judged to be able to deal with rough roads, but not so soft as to float or wallow. Similarly, the steering picks a balanced point between being sedate enough to feel planted on the open road, but user-friendly enough for low-speed moves.

If you’re interested in the nitty-gritty of the e-Power system, it carries over unchanged from the X-Trail Ti and Ti-L. The 1.5-litre petrol engine produces 106kW and 250Nm, but since this never drives the wheels, only the generator, those outputs aren’t particularly relevant.

Instead, the electric motors on each axle bring 150kW and 330Nm to the front axle and 100kW with 195Nm to the rear, but combined output maxes out at 157kW. The system is designed with a front bias, and you can see through the system monitoring screen that when not needed, the rear motor will take itself out of the equation.

If the urge for some aggressive driving takes you, the front wheels feel more active and you can elicit understeer – though I reckon few X-Trail owners are likely to push hard enough to discover this. For the most part, it’s a stable package with enough traction to serve your needs on a variety of surfaces, including dedicated Snow and Off-Road drive modes.

Nissan’s take on a medium SUV does plenty to serve the needs of Aussie families, as witnessed by the fact the petrol versions won the title of Best Medium SUV in the 2023 Drive Car of the Year awards. The hybrid model drives that further (pardon the pun) with improved fuel efficiency in a technically impressive hybrid system.

While my week with the car didn’t match Nissan’s 6.1L/100km claim, the fact that it sat so close on just 6.4L/100km is entirely forgivable. It’s also pretty easy to be charmed by the swiftness and smoothness of the drivetrain – most of the time.

The driver assist systems work well, the interior space and presentation are impressive, but some of the storage solutions and some of the specifications (like the lack of auto wipers and a wireless charge pad) don’t match up to rivals.

Importantly, the ST-L e-Power lowers the price of admission to Nissan’s family hybrid range and that’s only a good thing. For anyone put off by the wait list for certain rivals, the X-Trail could be the answer.

While the newly introduced X-Trail ST-L e-Power helps lower the cost of entry to Nissan’s hybrid system, there’s a long list of additional standard features in the X-Trail Ti, one grade up, and this is the model I’d be looking at most closely. That said, if your budget is capped without room to move, the ST-L still serves up plenty of features.

Stock of the new ST-L hybrid is already available in limited numbers at Nissan dealerships around the country, so you may be able to find your perfect match without having to order or face a wait. Click here to find your local Nissan showroom.