The Nissan Ariya NISMO seems like a badge engineering cash-grab

Nissan has introduced a brand new efficiency trim stage of the Ariya on the Tokyo Auto Salon 2024 present this week: Meet the Ariya NISMO. It’s a extra highly effective, sporty, and physique kit-clad model of the corporate’s solely fashionable BEV providing and, for now, it will likely be restricted to sale within the Japanese market.

The Ariya NISMO affords marginally larger output than the usual model of the automobile, with 320 kW (~430 hp) of energy and 600 Nm (~440 lb-ft) of torque. Different adjustments are largely aesthetic, although Nissan actually needs you to purchase in to the concept a set of fancy rims make the Ariya deal with appreciably higher, saying “extremely inflexible 20-inch aluminum wheels generates superior stability and turn-in means in addition to higher line-tracing and enhanced cornering means at excessive speeds.” OK!

A particular NISMO drive mode is added to the automobile that enhances acceleration and responsiveness, with a brand new synthetic cabin noise apparently impressed by the sound of System E race automobiles. That sound is demoed within the video under. It actually sounds… spacey.

On the within, you’ll be handled to NISMO seats and trim, presumably that means gratuitous crimson piping (not that that’s a nasty factor, essentially).

There’s no phrase if the Ariya NISMO can be offered within the US or different markets globally, or how way more it is going to value when it goes on sale in Japan this spring. The NISMO trim can be accessible for each battery capability variants of the Ariya (66 kWh and 91 kWh), with slight variations in peak energy output.

Electrek’s take

Naysayers may name the Ariya NISMO a elaborate physique equipment, new seat covers, and software program tuning… they usually’d most likely be proper. Nissan’s dilution of the NISMO badge on its extra “mainstream” automobiles is effectively documented in its ICE lineup, and it seems like that custom continues right here with the Ariya.

Given the Ariya NISMO seems destined just for Japan, that is doubtless simply an effort to extract a bit extra revenue margin from the automobile earlier than Nissan’s next-generation BEVs are introduced within the coming 12 months or two. Nissan has signaled its next-gen BEVs can be a serious transition level for the corporate, and within the context of the larger EV market, I believe the Ariya has reached the zenith of its relevance, even in typically electrical car-averse Japan. Now’s the time to money in.

With the following Leaf prone to be introduced this 12 months on a crossover-based design (and presumably, with a considerably lower cost), the Ariya appears destined to turn out to be an “also-ran” within the carmaker’s portfolio sooner moderately than later.