Nissan X-Trail review

Our test car is a four-wheel drive version called e-4orce, where an additional 134bhp, 144lb ft motor drives the rear axle. Normally, in systems where the front and rear motors operate separately, the total power output is the sum of the two, but the X-Trail tops out at only 210bhp rather than 335bhp because the battery is limited in how much it can supply.

One benefit of the e-Power system is reduced mechanical complexity: there is no multi-speed gearbox and the four-wheel-drive model can do without a propshaft. The other benefit, claims Nissan, is that the car feels like an EV to drive (including the possibility of one-pedal driving), but without the need to worry about charging.

The petrol engine itself is quite fascinating, too. It is a three-cylinder turbocharged unit with a variable compression ratio, a technology Nissan initially launched on Infiniti models. The group has achieved this by putting an adjuster on the crankshaft that can shorten or lengthen the pistons’ stroke, thus changing the total swept capacity and therefore the compression ratio. It can change gradually from an 8:1 ratio under high load, to 14:1 under steady, low load. What’s more, thanks to variable valve timing, it can switch to the Atkinson cycle when cruising for even better efficiency.

Nissan has been developing the ePower concept for a while, rolling out the first generation on the Japanese-market Note. The X-Trail uses the second generation, which has more performance and stamina, and introduced the variable-compression engine. It has since debuted a third generation on the 2025-onwards Qashqai, which ditches the variable-compression engine for a simpler but more fuel efficient version. The American-market counterpart of the X-Trail, the Nissan Rogue is getting the updated system later this year, so we think it's a matter of time before the X-Trail e-Power gets a technical update as well.

For a while, Nissan also offered a mild-hybrid X-Trail for buyers on a tighter budget, although it was dropped for the 2026 facelift. It uses a version of the same variable-compression three-pot as the full hybrid, but in this application it drives the front wheels directly via a conventional continuously variable transmission. As it is only a 12V mild-hybrid system, the belt-driven starter-generator serves mainly to smooth out the start/stop system, though it can also provide a 4.4lb ft boost under acceleration.

Comfort and isolation

The X-Trail’s EV-like weight doesn’t seem to hurt its handling too much, but on the flip side it does suffer from a kind of restlessness to the ride that we often see on electric cars. Despite tallish tyre sidewalls, the X-Trail just doesn’t deal with short imperfections especially well and it’s a bit crashy at low speed.

Comfort does improve with speed, making the X-Trail a generally very relaxing long-distance cruiser. Potholes that would send a jolt through the structure of many cars are shrugged off, and the car takes long-wave bumps in a very relaxed manner, although there is a hint of floatiness. It magnifies the contrast with the low-speed ride, which is unfortunate.

The seats contribute to the overall picture of comfort. They’re lifted from the Qashqai and are just as soft but supportive as in that car. The driving position is spot on too, with plenty of adjustment, which gives you the choice of whether you want to sit fairly low or elevated.

On noise refinement, the X-Trail puts in only an average performance. At lower speed, there’s a fair bit of suspension noise, and on the motorway, more road noise finds its way into the cabin than in rivals. We recorded 69dBA at 70mph, versus 66dBA in the Sorento HEV AWD and the RAV4 PHEV.

Assisted driving notes

Adaptive cruise control and blindspot assist are standard across the range, but to get Nissan’s full assisted driving suite, called ProPilot, you must upgrade to at least Tekna trim. That adds active lane following, automatic speed limit adjustment and Navi-Link, which will slow the car for bends.

The adaptive cruise control was supposedly improved for the 2026, but we didn't notice an obvious difference. In any case it's one of the better such systems as it's generally fairly smooth and anticipates reasonably well, with very smooth automatic lane following that can be turned on and off using a physical button. We would have like to see an option to switch to normal non-adaptive cruise control, though.

Navi-Link is best disabled, as we’ve yet to find a curve on the motorway that can’t be taken at 70mph. The automatic speed adjustment is best kept on the setting that waits for you to confirm before changing the speed, because the speed sign recognition is better than most but far from infallible. We didn’t have any false warnings from the collision avoidance.

The mandatory safety systems, including the lane-keep assist, driver monitoring and overspeed warning are typically irritating, but can all be switched off very easily in one go with just a few presses of the steering wheel buttons.