After an 11-year wait, the Leaf’s first electric sibling enters a crowded market with few best-in-class attributes and strong but peculiar performance.
About Those Brakes
We're already on record disapproving of EV regenerative braking systems that move the pedal to indicate how much braking is already happening.pioneered this bad idea, and Nissan's e-Step feature perpetuates it. However, Nissan may have made the idea slightly worse with close pedal spacing that's enough to allow the brake pedal to graze the driver's shoe while they're backing off on the accelerator, annoying them even when they aren't groping to find where the pedal is.
On the positive side, disabling e-Step eliminates pedal movement even when regenerative braking occurs. This happens most in Sport mode, which sort of emulates the amount of compression braking an engine would offer with a manual transmission. The indicator gauge showed about 80 percent of the maximum regen in this mode. There's a bit less regen in Standard mode, and you get pure coasting in Eco mode. Actual stopping power is fine.
Unfortunately, Nissan taints that victory by giving drivers wildly optimistic real-time guesstimates. With the battery full, the instrument cluster indicates the Ariya can cover 289 miles, and that wishful thinking persisted even as we accumulated miles. A Nissan rep explained the inaccuracy by saying the real-time prediction was an estimate, not an exact science. We have another theory. It's probably not a coincidence that the AWD Ariya thinks it can drive as far as the front-drive version.
Although its highway range is respectable, there are better choices for anyone planning to cover long distances in their electric SUV. With power peaking at a low 130 kilowatts and quickly tapering off, fast-charging the Ariya is only fast if you compare it to past-generation EVs like the Chevrolet Bolt and the Nissan Leaf. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6 use an 800-volt architecture to charge much quicker.
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