To turn around its Indian operations, Nissan India has finally started taking the necessary steps. The first step in their two-year plan is introducing CBU products to reestablish themselves, the second step is a model offensive of five new products and the third is growing their exports from the made-in-India products. For the first two steps, the spearhead comes in the form of the new 2024 Nissan X-Trail.
The X-Trail is not a new name in India though. We had the second generation on sale in the country for a brief period between 2007 and 2010. Now the Nissan X-Trail is making a comeback, and there are few hits and misses with it. Let’s look at those hits and misses in detail.
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Admittedly, the X-Trail is one handsome-looking SUV. In terms of sheer size and road presence, the X-Trail has it in the bag. The first thing that catches your attention is the dimensions and proportions. The X-Trail has a proper SUV stance with the right amount of muscle in the right places.
Upfront there’s the Nissan’s V-motion grille which also has the right burliness to go with the SUV’s stance. And it’s just the right amount of chrome as well. Flanking the grille is the split headlamp setup, but the designers have made it look like the headlamp is inside the bodywork and that’s a nice touch. You get an LED signature, but the interesting bit is the air inlets integrated on either side of the bumper. It is done to improve the aerodynamics and reduce the drag coefficient. There are also steps taken on the side to direct air over the wheels.
Adding to the brawn are the 20-inch alloy wheels. They are wrapped in 255/45-section tyres. In profile, there’s a prominent girth and the X-Trail stands tall with proper character lines on the side. Adding to its design appeal are the wraparound tail lamps with the upright tailgate. At the back, the sleek tail lamps are highly placed and the muscle I mentioned earlier is also seen prominently here with the shape of the bumper, skid plates and roof-mounted spoiler. Now there are only three colour choices for the X-Trail – Pearl White, Diamond Black, and Champagne Silver.
Stepping inside, the all-black cabin might not impress you or make you go wow right away like most of the modern-day cabins make you feel special. But spend some time and you’d appreciate the no-fuss interior. There is a concoction of material with a brown finish on top of the dashboard soft-touch materials in the centre and a silver insert running across the dash. While the steering wheel design is basic, there’s an all-digital driver’s display behind it. It is configurable and has a lot of information on offer.
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But on the contrary, the floating touchscreen isn’t large enough by today’s standard and has a very basic user interface which feels almost a decade old now. It doesn’t even get wireless smartphone integration either. You also get a 360-degree surround camera integrated into it but even that projection isn’t as legible as you get in some modern-day cars. Adding to the creature's comfort are the dual zone AC and wireless charging pad. With a floating centre console, you get good ergonomics as the controls are easy to reach. However, the cubby area liberated below the centre console is not easily reachable and barely usable.
As for the seats, they do offer ample support, but the backrest height could have been a bit taller. Also, there’s fabric upholstery only and no leather/leatherette on offer and there’s no electric adjustment and ventilation function for the front row seats – all of which are a huge miss. Moving to the second row, the doors open wide making getting inside easier helped by wide ingress and proper seat height. Once in, you’d notice ample leg room and headroom, while three can sit abreast without being a very tight fit even for the middle passenger. Despite the 60:40 split fold seats also have middle-seat backrests folding down to double up as cupholders and centre armrest. Helped by the large panoramic sunroof and sufficiently big windows, the second row feels quite airy.
But the third row is not so much. Getting into the third row isn’t as graceful and once there, there’s barely any headroom for my size (I am 5.5’) and the two adults – if seated together in the third row – would be constantly struggling for the shoulder room. There’s a cupholder provided here with an adjustable headrest, but no dedicated AC vents. Overall, the third row is not very usable, or only for kids on shorter journeys.
There's a decently long feature list on offer. Apart from the Panoramic sunroof you also get a 360-degree camera, an all-digital driver's display auto headlamps, dual-zone climate control, paddle shifters, rain-sensing wipers and 7 airbags. But what the X-Trail misses is offering some feel-good features which have now become common in mass-market Indian cars, features like leatherette upholstery for the seats, ventilated seats, powered tailgate, a heads up display, even powered front seats and, keeping up with the trend, ADAS.
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With the X-Trail, you get only one powertrain choice now. Internationally there’s also a range-extended hybrid powertrain on offer and we expected that to be offered here as well. But what we get here instead is a 1.5-litre three-cylinder turbo petrol engine with a CVT automatic. It also gets a 12-volt mild hybrid. But you see this is a special engine. It has something that Nissan calls Variable Compression. So let me take a few minutes to explain it to you. A compression ratio in an engine is the ratio of space or volume inside the cylinder when the piston is in the topmost position and when it’s in the bottom-most position. The higher the compression ratio the higher the fuel mileage you get from the engine. Case in point the diesel engines. They have a very high compression ratio between 14-25. On the other hand, petrol engines have a low compression ratio, such engines make more power and are more responsive.
Now this variable compression engine Nissan has developed is a revolution of a kind. It can vary its compression ratio from 8 to 14 depending on the throttle applied. It is done intelligently by applying an actuator that changes the travel of the piston. It’s a revolutionary engine of kind, but how is it in the real-world driving scenario? For starters, the engine feels refined and has no vibrations or sounds you'd usually expect from a three-cylinder. At city speeds the response is adequate and it feels smooth and stress-free in everyday driving scenarios. There’s ample grunt available and when you do hit the highway, the powertrain doesn’t feel underpowered at all.
It’s a rev-happy engine and once you put down the pedal, the tachometer would seamlessly race towards the 6,000 redline. It can also hold triple-digit speeds effortlessly, and when there’s a need for an overtake a dab on throttle does the trick. There’s no lag of any kind, even from the CVT automatic. In its newest generation now, the CVT from Nissan is much improved and has gotten better over the years. So, there’s no rubber-band effect felt and there’s no delay from the gearbox either. It shifts seamlessly and that compliments the engine.
At slow speeds, the steering is very light, which doesn't fit the personality of the X-Trail. And as speed increases there's some weight added to it but what's more surprising is how quick the steering is. It goes only 2.5 turns from lock to lock and it's very responsive and light. Which is surprisingly a good combination to have, and more carmakers should try it. The ride is admittedly on the stiffer side, which is understandable as this is a Euro-spec setup. It's not as stiff that you'd feel everything on the road, but on rougher roads, it will toss you around a bit.
Once launched, the Nissan X-Trail will be available in India only in limited numbers. And as the case with the CBU products always, it does really boil down to the pricing Nissan India gets the X-Trail at. It’s expected to carry a price tag of Rs 40-45 lakh (ex-showroom). At this price, it needs to justify its positioning in a higher segment than where it actually belongs. It hits that mark thanks to its dimensions and proportions. It’s the engine that's a gem of a kind. And there’s also the spacious and practical cabin with Japanese reliability to go with it. Sure, there’s no hybrid or AWD hardware to go with the pricing, the third row is not very useful, and many features are missing that the X-Trail should have offered, especially at its price point. This might be off-putting to some of the buyers.
But those who are looking for a full-size Japanese SUV and have experienced Nissan products (domestic or abroad) would surely find the new X-Trail a perfect fit for their garage. If by some trick Nissan manages to price the X-Trail under the 40-lakh bracket, they might have a winner in their hand. Especially because the limited number of X-Trails will be their halo product and will pave the way for the model offensive the Japanese carmaker plans to introduce in India in the next couple of years.
