Nissan says X-Trail E-Power fuel figures more realistic than RAV4 hybrid

The 2023 Nissan X-Trail E-Power hybrid’s on-paper fuel-efficiency ratings were under scrutiny at launch, though Nissan is confident the hybrid X-Trail will be able to hit its claims in the real world – unlike Toyota’s RAV4 Hybrid.

The X-Trail E-Power AWD arrives in Australia with fanfare about its EV-like driving experience, but on-paper fuel figures aren’t jaw-dropping. It bests the combustion-engined X-Trail by 1.6L/100km in the ADR81/02 combined cycle, returning 6.1L/100km.

However, its main rival, the RAV4 hybrid AWD, is rated at 4.8L/100km in the same test.

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“I think with the fuel economy, it's a tricky one. And I guess we'll leave that in your hands to do the real-world testing,” Nissan X-Trail product manager Aleksander Pecanac told media.

“From a lot of the articles that I've seen for RAV4 hybrid, you can't get anywhere near the 4.8L/100km rating. And a lot of the articles that we've seen from Qashqai [E-Power] in Europe, they're getting very close to the quoted figure."

Sounds like the perfect excuse for a comparison. We’ll have one live soon.

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How does the X-Trail E-Power’s fuel consumption stack up?

Here’s a table comparing the X-Trail E-Power against similarly-sized rivals. The variance is significant across different systems.

Of course, it will come down to how each performs in the real world. You can read our full review of the E-Power Ti and Ti-L here, where we recorded 6.5L/100km on the open road and 5.5L/100km in urban driving.

It’s difficult to compare directly, but the last time few times we've had RAV4s through the garage, both Alex Inwood and Peter Anderson saw 5.5L/100km on the trip computer.

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In a comparison against a Honda HR-V, Dan Gardner saw 6.2L/100km on a RAV4’s trip computer, but when cross-referenced against the old-fashioned brim-fill and manual calculation, the RAV actually consumed 7.3L/100km in the test.

When asked if the X-Trail E-Power would repeat the Qashqai’s ability to match consumption figures in Europe, Pecanac said: “Based on media reports and real-world testing, I imagine so.”