Nissan releases new Qashqai teaser image (2013)

By Ollie Kew

First Official Pictures

28 October 2013 11:45

The new Nissan Qashqai will be revealed on 7 November 2013, and Nissan has created this teaser image of the car, revealing nothing more than a hint of the LED running lights and new grille design on the car. However, thanks to CAR’s previous spy shots story, we can dive beneath the veil and reveal a little more about the new family crossover.

Taking cues from the Resonance SUV concept first shown at the 2013 Detroit motor show, the new Qashqai wears a sharper suit than the outgoing car, employing a bold front grille which frames its Nissan badge in a prominent chromed U-shape signature. The new X-Trail SUV provides many clues to the look of the new Qashqai – including the bulbous wheelarches picked out in the teaser image.

Again, think downsized X-Trail: spy shots show a large central touchscreen surrounded by multiple function buttons, and two chromed rotary controls. One’s one for volume, the other is for cycling through menus for you touchscreen-phobes. Below that we find the climate control interface, while the instrument dials ahead of the driver have also been freshen up with a classier finish.

The new Qashqai will only be available as a five-seater model, Nissan has confirmed: there is no long-wheelbase, Qashqai+2 seven-seater planned. The tactic is an attempt to prevent a more commodious Qashqai cannibalising sales of the larger, £6000-pricier X-Trail.

Front- and four-wheel drive will be available in the new Qashqai, mated to either refreshed existing engines, or new downsized powerplants. Though the 1.6-litre turbodiesel engine is likely to be the UK’s biggest seller, buyers with lower annual mileage might be seduced by the new 1.2-litre turbo petrol motor, which promises lower CO2 emissions and a cheaper entry-level price.

A Nissan spokesman told CAR that although the Qashqai’s price would see a slight rise versus the existing model on account of the new technology and higher quality of finish, the new car’s price would ‘remain competitive’, staying close to the £17-27k of current range.

Nissan has entertained the idea of plumbing the Juke Nismo’s 197bhp four-pot into the Qashqai, creating a performance crossover to fight the Mini Countryman Cooper S JCW. No such project has been signed off as yet, but company performance division Nismo is ramping up its activity, recently inking a deal with F1 legends Williams to develop road car tech.

The ‘Nissan Motorsport’ skunkworks has also committed to developing a wider range of go-faster Nissans in the future, including a banzai GT-R flagship due later in 2013. So, it’s possible a bodykit-shod Nismo Qashqai could arrive to liven up school runs in 2014 or beyond.

By Ollie Kew