Nissan Rogue

Nissan didn't build a better RAV4. It built a small locomotive

An EV carrying its own fuel

Nissan's spec sheet has a line for the transmission, and Makse noticed that the line is empty. A 1.5-litre turbocharged three-cylinder turns a generator and nothing else, while two electric motors do all the driving, the engine capped at 5,200 rpm, "which it has no particular reason to visit." Twenty minutes in an unfinished prototype and an hour in a nearly finished one left him with one verdict he was prepared to stand behind — "I drive them all. And this is the quietest" — and one reservation: the software that decides when the engine runs is the entire driving experience, and software is precisely what changes between a prototype and a showroom.

What the Rogue buys

A Auto Buyers Guide stated the trade in a single sentence — not more efficient than a RAV4, but more responsive, more consistent in "that EV type feel" — and then declared a side: "I'm willing to sacrifice some miles per gallon to get what I think is a better driving experience." Kirk Kreifels, who had both cars on the same hill, filled in the rest of the column. The Rogue climbed noticeably more quietly, steered better, sat better, and kept physical climate controls where Toyota had moved them into the touchscreen; standard all-wheel drive and one-pedal driving completed the list. Among the reviewers who drove the two back to back, none of this was in dispute.

What it spends

Car Confections did the arithmetic the others left undone. Against the car it replaces, the new Rogue gives up 8.2 cubic feet of cargo space and a couple of inches of rear legroom, leaving it five inches behind the CR-V, and Nissan's own 38 mpg combined sits below both the Toyota and the Honda. Real leather has gone, tri-zone climate has become dual-zone, and the price has risen. Edmunds Cars puts the entry point at about $37,000, "a few thousand dollars more than the RAV4, even when you account for having all-wheel drive," and the Platinum at $45,000. A worthy rival from behind the wheel, Edmunds concluded, before asking whether buyers would pay the difference: "we're not quite sure."

Where Toyota still answers

Kreifels' comparison carries a title promising that Nissan wins, and for most of the loop it delivers. Then he pins the throttle. "It's actually less responsive than Toyota's," he reports, because with no mechanical path from engine to wheels the generator must spin up before the motors receive their full ration, while the RAV4, waiting on nothing, simply goes. He closes the way an honest ledger closes — "I'm not saying that it is better than the RAV4 hybrid. It does a lot of things better" — with the Toyota still the king of the segment, and, in his words, for a reason.