I headed down to Victoria to Hepburn Springs to spend International Women's Day driving the brand-new 2024 Nissan Qashqai Ti e-Power. This exciting new Hybrid five-seater SUV is a great option for families. I am testing it with an Infasecure Quattro Onyx child seat and a Thule Spring pram.
The battery in the 2024 Nissan Qashqai e-Power directly powers the wheels. Unlike most hybrids from other brands, the engine is not connected to the wheels as its job is to power the battery, almost like a generator. This makes it feel like you’re driving a fully electric car with instant acceleration, a smooth and quiet ride, and excellent fuel efficiency which means, depending on how you drive, it's theoretically possible to go around 1000km between petrol stops.
The 2024 Qashqai e-Power has an e-Pedal, which is activated by a button in the central console that changes it to one-pedal driving; I liken it to like driving a Dodgem or go-kart. Switching to e-Pedal allows the driver to accelerate and brake using just the accelerator, so you don’t have to keep moving your foot between the accelerator and brake in stop-start traffic. It slows the car by reversing the action of the electric motor, giving energy back to the battery.
Pressing the EV button allows you to drive a few kilometres in full electric mode, which is handy for parents coming home late at night and not wanting to make any noise and disturb sleeping children! If you're really lucky you might even be able to drive bub to sleep without using any petrol, or at least sit for a while with the aircon (but not the engine) running if you are stuck in the car with a sleeping child you don't want to wake. For me this is one of the biggest benefits of hybrids and electric cars!
The Nissan Qashqai is currently one of the safest five-seater SUVs on sale in Australia, with the highest ANCAP safety rating for child occupants. The petrol Qashqai shares its 5-star ANCAP safety rating with the new 2024 Nissan Qashqai Ti e-Power model. With a very impressive score of 93% for child occupancy and 91% for adult occupancy.
Seven airbags are standard in the 2024 Nissan Qashqai e-Power: dual frontal, side chest-protecting, and side head-protecting curtain airbags, and a centre airbag, which provides added protection to front seat occupants in side impact crashes, is also standard in all models of Qashqai.
The Qashqai e-Power comes with rear parking sensors, Predictive Forward Collision Warning with Forward Emergency Braking (Junction/Pedestrian/Cyclist detection), Lane Departure Warning with Intelligent Lane Intervention, Intelligent Blind Spot Intervention, Traffic Sign Recognition, Rear Cross- Traffic Alert with AEB, Intelligent Cruise Control and High Beam Assist. Blind Spot Warning, Intelligent Driver Alert, a Tyre Pressure Monitoring System and Rear Seat Alert (which reminds drivers to check the back seat).
There is also an Around View Monitor camera system with Moving Object Detection and Nissan’s advanced ProPILOT semi-autonomous driving and safety aids, along with Front Parking Sensors and Adaptive Driving Beam headlights, which dynamically respond to other vehicles on the road.
ProPILOT is an easy-to-use driver assist system that combines Intelligent Cruise Control with Steering and Lane-Keep Assist technologies. Along with a stop-and-hold function, the system brakes when the vehicle ahead slows down and will even come to a complete stop before moving off again as the traffic ahead does, all while ensuring you remain within your lane.
Finally, there is Intelligent Park Assist, including side-parking sensors to keep your family (and paintwork) safe while you're tackling city streets and suburbia.
The 2024 Qashqai e-Power has a 12.3-inch media touchscreen. The media system is modern and easy to navigate and use. It has a built-in navigation system, wireless Apple CarPlay, and wired Android Auto.
The camera images are excellent quality and very clear.
You also have a 12.3-inch digital driver display screen…
… and a 10.8-inch Head-Up Display that projects speed and other info onto the windscreen.
Both front seats have a massage function you can turn on quickly with a button on the side of the seat bases. Every car should have this!
They can be adjusted within the media screen and the steering wheel can be heated too.
The panoramic roof is enjoyable for all onboard, making the cabin feel very spacious, light, and airy. It'll also help keep little passengers occupied looking up at the sky and things they are passing, provided the weather isn't too blazing hot for the blind to be open.
Wide rear door openings make getting child seats in and out of the back easy. It's also much more comfortable for adults to reach in to adjust little passengers' child seat harnesses.
Rear air-con vents in the back of the central console box help you to keep little passengers at the right temperature while driving along, and the USB and USB-C sockets below them are great for charging rear passengers' devices while travelling, too.
When it comes to installing child seats in the back of the 2024 Nissan Qashqai e-Power, there are ISOFix in the two outer rear seats. They are within plastic guides and are nice and easy to connect to.
There are top tether anchorages in the back of all three rear seat backs. They are easy to access and connect through the boot.
I have the Infasecure Quattro Onyx with me installed in the 2024 Qashqai e-Power, and it fits really nicely. From my testing of the petrol Qashqai I am sure three Infasecure child seats across will fit very well in the Nissan Qashqai Ti e-Power, and I'm looking forward to testing some more Infasecure child seats in there when I have the Qashqai e-Power in a few weeks with my family.
When it comes to legroom, we found about a 170cm driver could fit in front of the rear-facing Infasecure child seat or a 186cm driver in front of a forward-facing Infasecure Quattro Onyx child seat.
Although the 2024 Qashqai e-Power feels really spacious inside, it is small enough that you can reach back easily to pass things to Bub in the back if you need to.
The boot space is excellent in the Qashqai e-Power and has some really practical features for families. It has a hands-free opening; with just the touch of a button, you can open and close it, leaving your hands free to carry your kids or their things.
The boot floor has many configurations. You can drop the floor down to give a deeper cargo space. You can turn the boot floor over to a flat plastic-covered side, which is excellent when putting in a muddy pram, for example, so you don't get mud all over the carpet, or especially for beach gear, as the sand never comes out of the carpet!
The boot floor can be used as a divider to section the boot out and carry the shopping, for example, without it sliding around in the boot. Or if you leave the boot floor in place, it gives you a secret underfloor storage space! The good news is that unlike some hybrids, boot space is the same in the 2024 Nissan Qashqai e-Power as in the petrol version, the downside being that there is a puncture repair kit instead of a spare tyre.
The Thule Spring pram fits really nicely in the boot of the 2024 Nissan Qashqai e-Power, with lots of room beside it for a grocery shop. The Thule Chasm 90L duffel bag also fits in there. I can't wait to test the Qashqai Ti e-Power's boot with my range of Thule prams in a few weeks.
I can’t wait to put the 2024 Nissan Qashqai e-Power through our full family testing in a couple of weeks with Infasecure child seats and Thule prams.
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