Powered up! Priced down? Nissan announces big update for 2026 Qashqai e-Power range extender hybrid

June 30, 2025June 30, 2025 John Mahoney 6369 Views e-Power, nissan, Qashqai

Nissan has released new details of its third-generation e-Power range extender hybrid tech that it will launch under the bonnet of the 2026 Nissan Qashqai in Australia next year.

The headline news is once it arrives, the updated e-Power will produce more power, be more fuel efficient, while emitting less emissions and delivering enhanced levels of refinement.

Helping unlock some of the biggest efficiency gains is the system’s 1.5-litre turbocharged three-cylinder engine that now adopts Nissan’s latest ‘STARC combustion cycle’ which is claimed to increase thermal efficiency by as much as 42 per cent.

Other gains come from a new larger turbo that allows the combustion engine to turn over at lower revs at highway speeds.

Buy the new e-Power and Nissan says your running costs will be lowered further by a new more efficient lubrication system that extends service intervals from 15,000km to 20,000km.

The big news is that average fuel consumption drops to 4.5L/100km on the WLTP test cycle, while CO2 emissions drop from 116g/km to 102g/km.

Better still, those figures translate to savings in the real-world with Nissan claiming a 16 per cent reduction in fuel use in combined driving and a 14 per cent improvement at highway speeds.

Total power, meanwhile, has climbed by 11kW to 151kW, which should see an improvement on the current car’s 0-100km/h sprint of 7.9 seconds.

As well as being quicker, Nissan said another handy advantage of its latest powertrain is it is up to 5.6 decibels quieter for higher levels of refinement at speed.

Another benefit of the e-Power powertrain is it is claimed to be 20 per cent cheaper to produce than existing tech, with some of those savings expected to be passed onto consumers.

However, for evidence of that we’ll have to wait until early 2026 for full pricing and specification to be released for the 2026 Nissan Qashqai e-Power.

So far all we know is the UK-built Qashqai goes on-sale in September in Europe and in Oceania (Australia et al) within months of that.

Timing has been officially put as Japanese financial year 2026, which begins next April 1.

There’s no word yet how the updated e-Power will affect Nissan’s e-4orce all-wheel drive tech, nor when it will be rolled out in the X-Trail SUV, where that all-wheel drive tech is currently offered.

In Australia the Qashqai was moderately updated in early 2025. E-Power Qashqai picing starts at a hefty $52,365 plus on-road costs.