2025 Nissan Qashqai Ti e-Power review

Finding a hybrid small SUV somewhere in between cheap and luxury has, for a long time now, been the domain of mostly just Toyota.

Nissan introduced e-Power to Australia via the X-Trail shortly after the model's launch, but only in its top-spec form.

In 2025, more car makers are bringing hybrid power lower down their ranges, as is the case with the Qashqai, which you can now have as a hybrid for less than $50,000.

Is the new Ti e-Power a good family car? Let's find out.

There are five grades in the Nissan Qashqai line-up: the ST, ST-L, Ti, Ti-L and N-Design. Until July this year, only the top two variants had hybrid e-Power options, but now the mid-spec Ti does too, which is what I had on test here.

This is great as it makes hybrid power accessible at a more affordable point in the range.

The cheapest Qashqai is the ST, which starts from $34,665, while the most expensive is the N-Design e-Power, which kicks off from $54,365. This Ti e-Power sits in the middle, starting from $47,165. All prices are before on-road costs.

At the time of writing, Nissan is running a drive-away deal on a variety of Qashqai model grades. This includes the Ti e-Power I drove, which costs $49,990 drive-away for MY25 models.

As standard, the Qashqai Ti e-Power features a 12.3-inch infotainment screen and a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, dual-zone climate control, satellite navigation, a wireless phone charger, adaptive LED headlights, heated front seats, and 19-inch wheels.

It also gets a 360-degree camera, as well as front and rear parking sensors, a six-speaker sound system, an eight-way powered-adjusted driver’s seat, ambient lighting and rear privacy glass.

There are eight exterior paint choices, though only the Magnetic Blue this car has is free, with the others costing an extra $995. There are also five further two-tone options for the Ti and above, costing between $995 and $1495.

Personally, though, I’d keep the Magnetic Blue. It’s so vibrant that it makes the car look far more exciting than a white, black, or grey one would, and it means it’s super easy to find in car parks.

In comparison, its closest rivals come in the form of the Hyundai Kona and MG ZS, which offer petrol and electrified options, and the hybrid-only Toyota Corolla Cross.

The cheapest hybrid Kona you can get into is the Kona Hybrid FWD 1.6L, costing $36,700, but a better mid-spec match might be the Elite for $39,700. Prices are expressed before on-road costs.

Meanwhile, the Toyota Corolla Cross range opens with the GX 2.0L FWD Hybrid for $37,440, but again, a more suitable opponent is the GXL for $41,190. Both prices before on-road costs.

The MG ZS is the most affordable of the bunch, with the least expensive hybrid being the Excite Hybrid+ 1.5L FWD, currently available for $32,990 drive-away, while the higher-spec Essence costs $34,990 drive-away.

The Nissan Qashqai is a similar length to the MG ZS, which is 4430mm long, and roughly as high as the Corolla Cross, which is 1620mm, but marginally wider than both of them, and the Kona as well.

It has 479 litres of boot space with the second row of seats up, extended to 1422L with them folded flat. It’s enough for your day-to-day needs, and can fit a pram plus a couple of backpacks, or five large grocery shopping bags.

There’s no powered tailgate for it, though, which is a bit of a miss. Luckily, it is not heavy to pull down.

Comparatively, the ZS has 443L with the seats up and 1457L with them folded, the Kona 407L and 1241L, and the Corolla Cross 425L, with a secondary figure not quoted.

The quality of the cabin in the Ti is quite high; the upholstery is comprised of a mix of brown and black partial-leather. It has an elegance to it, and is better than black-on-black, but I don’t think it’s the ideal match for the vivid blue on the outside, and it can make the inside of the car quite dark.

While there are plastics used, they aren’t cheap or harsh, and I quite like the metal-look and chequered-effect panel used on the centre console around the gear shifter and cupholders to offer a focal point for the front row.

There is ambient lighting in the Ti, but it’s a pale white colour that is barely noticeable most of the time. The only time you see the strips is when you’re in cruise control and they glow bright green – a bit strange, and again totally at odds with the otherwise chocolatey interior.

The seats in the front and back are nice and comfortable, and there’s a good amount of leg room for the front passenger, but things are a bit more cramped in the second row.

Behind my driving position, my kids had their legs right up to the back of the seats, and there’s only room for an adult in the middle between the child seats in the two outboard positions if you really squish yourself in.

Otherwise, the child seats are pretty easy to fit, with ISOFIX anchors on the left and right seats, and three top-tether points across the back. The only downside is that because it has a hard cardboard-style parcel shelf, you have to take it out to be able to connect the top tethers properly, as it gets in the way.

There’s not much in the way of general storage space either. In the front, the centre console bin is quite small, though it does come with a little handy shelf of its own, and there’s a small glovebox, but the back does benefit from map pockets on both sides to store small items such as books or toys.

For drinks, there are two central cupholders that are a good size, and can fit a standard mug in comfortably for those mornings when you’re rushing and there’s no time to stop for a sippy cup transfer. 

Space in the front doors for drinks is accommodating and can fit a large 1.5-litre bottle, while the back doors have smaller slots for a child’s size or standard 600ml vessel.

In total, there are four USB-C ports, two in the front and two in the back, as well as two 12V sockets, one in the front and the other in the boot.

The Nissan Qashqai Ti has both wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, as well as wired functionality, through the 12.3-inch infotainment screen.

The display is somewhat dull, and there aren’t many things you can do within it. Largely, it makes sense, but when trying to turn on the radio, I couldn’t find it because there is no menu option for it when you’re connected to Apple CarPlay. 

To swap audio input, you’ve got to scroll through and select it on the driver’s cluster using buttons on the steering wheel, or else double-click the music note button. If you need to be shown how to find it for a basic function like this, it’s just too hard and not user-friendly.

The responsiveness of the infotainment was otherwise good, and the CarPlay connection stable, but on one day the cluster displayed the wrong time for a short while for no apparent reason before independently correcting itself.

Nissan offers its connected services app with the Qashqai, through which you can plan journeys, monitor your car from anywhere, and remotely control features such as the lights and horn. The service is free for the first three years, after which there is a fee.

The Nissan Qashqai has a five-star ANCAP safety rating dating back to 2021 when the latest model generation arrived.

It scored more than 90 per cent in three out of four categories, with a 91 per cent result given for adult occupant protection, 93 per cent for children, and 97 per cent for its safety assist technology. For vulnerable road user protection, it scored 74 per cent.

The Toyota Corolla Cross also has a five-star rating from 2022, but the MG ZS and Hyundai Kona both have only four stars, from 2024 and 2023, respectively.

The Qashqai is well equipped in terms of safety, and it comes with features such as autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection, as well as intersection awareness, lane-keep assist, adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, and rear cross-traffic alert.

There’s also traffic sign recognition, low-speed rear autonomous emergency braking for car parks, a driver drowsiness alert, tyre pressure monitoring and seven airbags.

In practice, the Qashqai’s safety systems work well and are not intrusive. The lane assistance gently brings you back to the centre if you’ve gone too far towards the lines, and the driver monitor only kicks in if you’ve really taken your eyes off the road for too long.

The adaptive cruise generally does its job, but like the cruise you’ll find in new Toyotas, when it slows down to react to a car merging in front of you, it slows too much and then takes an age to regain momentum again, leaving an unnecessarily large gap.

The Nissan Qashqai comes with a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, with service intervals set at every 12 months/10,000km, whichever comes first.

Nissan also offers an extended warranty program, which can extend the warranty out to 10 years or 300,000km, whichever comes first, provided the vehicle is serviced at one of its dealerships.

The hybrid battery is also separately covered for eight years or 160,000km, and there’s one year of complimentary roadside assistance.

Nissan offers five years of capped-price servicing for the Qashqai costing $399 each time you go into the dealer.

Over three years, this works out at $1197 or $1995 for the full five years.

Comparatively, the Toyota Corolla Cross also has a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, plus the engine and driveline are covered for seven years, and the hybrid battery for 10 years, provided you maintain the recommended service schedule. Services are required every 12 months or 15,000km.

MG offers a longer seven-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty for the ZS, which can also be extended to 10 years or 250,000km if servicing with the brand, which must be done every 12 months or 10,000km.

And Hyundai offers a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty for the Kona, with the hybrid battery covered for eight years or 160,000km. Servicing is needed every 12 months or 15,000km.

The Qashqai was quoted $1710.20 to comprehensively insure based on a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male living in Chatswood, NSW. Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history, and personal circumstances.

Nissan’s e-Power hybrid set-up is a little different to conventional hybrids, making it perform more like a fully-electric car than an internal combustion-engined one.

In the Qashqai e-Power, the electric motor exclusively drives the wheels, as it would in an EV, and the motor is powered by a battery, which is kept topped up by the petrol engine.

In this case, the engine acts as a generator, rather than powering the wheels itself.

In contrast, conventional hybrids, as you might find in a Toyota, use both the engine and motor to power the wheels – either simultaneously or at different times – and the motor is powered by the battery, which is recharged by the engine or energy recovered from deceleration and braking.

On paper, this Qashqai is rated to provide 4.8 litres per 100 kilometres compared to 5.8L/100km for the equivalent petrol variant.

On test, however, my average was 5.1L/100km. The lowest I was able to achieve, though, was 4.4L/100km, so depending on how far and long you need to drive for, beating the claim is possible. The highest I saw was 5.8L/100km.

All three of its rivals offer lower fuel claims, with the Hyundai Kona said to be the most economical at 3.9L/100km, the Toyota Corolla Cross next at 4.2L/100km and MG ZS closest at 4.7L/100km.

The Nissan Qashqai Ti e-Power uses a single front-mounted electric motor, powered by a 1.8kWh battery and a 1.5-litre turbo-petrol three-cylinder engine acting as a generator.

The e-Power, like full EVs, uses a single-speed reduction gear transmission to send 140kW to the front wheels. 

For the most part, it drives really nicely, and makes a great daily runaround car for ferrying the family to school, sports, heading to the shops and more.

Off the line, it accelerates well, making good use of the 330Nm available, and it moves away smoothly and quickly like an EV.

Put it under harder acceleration, though, especially at higher speeds, and it starts to run out of puff because the engine is needed to recharge the battery, and it’s almost like it has been caught asleep at the wheel and needs to wake up.

Unlike Toyota hybrid systems, you can use the EV Mode at higher speeds, with it only cutting out under extreme acceleration or if the battery is too depleted. 

Because the hybrid set-up is different, the battery charges much quicker, so you’re able to put it into EV Mode more often, which was very satisfying. 

EVs normally have different levels of regenerative braking, so you can decide whether you want to go full-pelt and chuck as much charge as you can into the battery at any given opportunity, or if you’d just like it to drive like a normal car. The Nissan Qashqai has a special e-Pedal button you can just turn on or off.

Turning on the e-Pedal makes the powertrain very jerky, so it takes some getting used to. 

Thanks to the EV-like performance at lower speeds, around town it is generally very quiet, and it’s only in those moments of putting your foot down that you’ll even know the engine is there.

Wind noise, too, is pretty well controlled, as is the sound from the Continental EcoContact 6 tyres.

The ride in the Qashqai overall is pretty good, performing well on smooth roads, and it sails over speed bumps without feeling too floaty.

But on rougher surfaces, it feels quite busy, and you’ll feel every little imperfection as shock waves ripple through the car up from the large 19-inch wheels, and it can be unsettled by sharp knocks, such as potholes.

The steering is nice and light, and helps the small SUV turn well into tight corners without much body roll, though there is a slight dead-spot in the centre. 

Not really, no. The Qashqai has a braked and unbraked towing capacity of just 750kg.

For a couple, or a young family with just one or two small children, this Qashqai Ti e-Power could be a great little daily driver.

It would fit in perfectly if you have a larger family vehicle for holidays, beach trips and the like, and this is the school-run vehicle.

Although there isn’t a whole heap of space, it’s enough.

It’s also great that you can now get hybrid power lower down the range, so you can get that lower fuel bill without having to spend almost $60,000 on a small SUV.

While the interior isn’t to my taste, it’s still very well appointed, there are good levels of kit as standard, and the exterior really gives it a presence that punches above its weight. If it had a powered tailgate, Nissan would really be on to a winner.

Throw in the extendable 10-year warranty, and the Qashqai is one of the better small SUVs out there. While not as stylish as a Kona, it’s more luxurious than a Corolla Cross and night and day from the ZS. Well worth having on your shopping list.

A born-and-bred newshound, Kathryn has worked her way up through the ranks reporting for, and later editing, two renowned UK regional newspapers and websites, before moving on to join the digital newsdesk of one of the world’s most popular newspapers – The Sun. More recently, she’s done a short stint in PR in the not-for-profit sector, and led the news team at Wheels Media.

Read more about Kathryn Fisk