Nissan Ariya makes public debut at Monaco

May 26, 2021June 4, 2021 Iain Curry 2011 Views electric car, electric suv, nissan ariya

Nissan’s Ariya electric crossover SUV has made has made its public driving debut at the Monte Carlo street circuit in glamorous Monaco.

With the weekend’s Formula 1 event being the predictable, zero-overtaking bore-fest, seeing the zero emissions Ariya silently zoom around the track was arguably a bigger highlight.

YouTube player — Nissan Ariya takes to the Circuit de Monaco

Nissan preferred to highlight the Ariya’s debut was “set against a fitting backdrop of the spectacular Formula E street circuit,” which is basically the same Circuit de Monaco layout as those used by Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and chums.

The video shot by Nissan (above) optimistically shows the Ariya sneaking past one of Nissan’s Formula E racers on the famous circuit.

While the Airya goes on sale in the UK’s right-hand drive market late this year, Emily Fadeyev at Nissan Australia said there was still no confirmation if and when the electric SUV would arrive in Australia. But reading between the lines, it’s a bit of a shoo-in.

Nissan Ariya makes its public driving debut in Monaco — Nissan Ariya meets Monte Carlo’s famous tunnel

“We’re still in discussions with the global team about Ariya,” she said. “We’re very interested in it, we’d love to see it in Australia and believe it’s a fantastic product.”

We can be hopeful the Ariya will arrive here as early as next year, although it won’t come cheap. It’s a very different animal to Nissan’s Leaf electric vehicle, the Ariya boasting a 0-100km/h time as low as 5.1 seconds and range up to 610km.

Premium finishes and equipment are promised, meaning we can guess an on-sale price in Australia from around the $75,000 mark, to over $100,000 for the hot, all-wheel-drive long-range version.

This would make it a likely rival to the Tesla Model Y when it arrives, albeit slightly smaller at 4595mm long and 1850mm wide (roughly Nissan X-Trail size), and with seating for only five.

Ariya will be offered as a single-motor two-wheel drive model driving the front wheels or a two-motor all-wheel drive.

It will be offered with two battery capacities – with useable capacities of 63kWh and 87kWh – the bigger batteries unleashing higher peak power and torque outputs.

The Nissan Ariya family

Price: From $75,000 (estimated)

Ariya 2WD/63kWh battery

Battery capacity: 63kWh

Electric motors: 1, driving the front wheels

Power/torque: 160kW/300Nm

0-100km/h: 7.5 seconds

Range: up to 450km

Ariya 2WD/87kWh battery

Battery capacity: 87kWh

Electric motors: 1, driving the front wheels

Power/torque: 178kW/300Nm

0-100km/h: 7.6 seconds

Range: up to 610km

Ariya 4WD/63kWh battery

Battery capacity: 63kWh

Electric motors: 2, one for the front wheels, one for the rear wheels

Power/torque: 250kW/560Nm

0-100km/h: 5.4 seconds

Range: up to 430km

Ariya 4WD/87kWh battery

Battery capacity: 87kWh

Electric motors: 2, one for the front wheels, one for the rear wheels

Power/torque: 290kW/600Nm

0-100km/h: 5.1 seconds

Range: up to 580km

Iain Curry

A motoring writer and photographer for two decades, Iain started in print magazines in London as editor of Performance BMW and features writer for BMW Car, GT Porsche and 4Drive magazines. His love of motor sport and high performance petrol cars was rudely interrupted in 2011 when he was one of the first journalists to drive BMW's 1 Series ActiveE EV, and has been testing hybrids, PHEVs and EVs for Australian newspapers ever since. Based near Noosa in Queensland, his weekly newspaper articles cover new vehicle reviews and consumer advice, while his photography is regularly seen on the pages of glossy magazines.