RAY MASSEY: Swift new trip for chart topping Nissan Qashqai

Taylor Swift is a big fan of Nissan’s Qashqai. Two years ago, the billionaire pop star bought one of the practical British-built family SUVs so she could travel around the UK incognito.

She is in good company. Nissan’s factory in Sunderland has produced more than four million of the Japanese crossovers since the original first-generation model was launched in 2007.

It’s been the UK’s most-bought family SUV every year since and in 2022 was the overall best-selling new car – the first time a British-made motor has topped the charts for 24 years.

Now Nissan has given the top-selling Qashqai a facelift to sharpen up its style, interior technology and trim to bring it more in line with the all-electric Nissan Ariya SUV.

This includes LED-lighting inspired by Samurai armour, three new exterior colours and an N-Design trim.

Its upgraded ‘Around View Monitor’ system has a 3D function letting the driver see the car as if from above as well as visualise it from eight external viewpoints to help spot hazards.

A feature – known officially as ‘invisible hood view’ but dubbed ‘Harry Potter vision’ – allows the driver to see the front wheels as if looking through an ‘invisible’ bonnet, enabling safe manoeuvring in tight locations.

The flagship Qashqai is a powerful and innovative electrified ‘e-Power’ hybrid – effectively an electricity-generating mini power station on wheels. 

The e-Power version uses its turbo-charged 3-cylinder 1.5 litre petrol engine to generate electricity which, in turn, powers the electric motor that drives the wheels and charges the battery of the vehicle with an automatic gear-box. 

Nissan believes this package is ‘a stepping-stone for customers not ready to make the switch to 100 per cent EV’ and offers the feel of an electric car without the need for charging.

I drove the £43,735 range-topping Qashqai Tekna e-Power 2-wheel drive full-hybrid. This spacious, practical and flexible family five-seater is a smooth operator offering official fuel efficiency of 53.3mpg and low CO2 emissions of 119g/km.

Prices for the refreshed Qashqai range start at £30,135.