Nissan Juke Hybrid, update for the Japanese B-SUV and entry into electrification

Breaking into the top 5 best-selling vehicles in the B-SUV segment comes at a high price, and it is no coincidence that brands deciding to compete in one of the most crowded segments have to do so against leaders such as the Dacia Duster, the Citroën C3 Aircross or the Renault Captur, among others. Competing in this segment is the Nissan Juke, a model now updated to stay at the forefront, but which now also sees its powertrain electrified.

The Nissan Juke will now be hybrid

The most important change, and the one that brings many of the other changes, is that the Nissan Juke will now also feature a hybrid powertrain, so let’s start with what you’ll find under its bonnet. Housed there is a 1,600 cc petrol engine delivering 94 CV together with 148 Nm of torque, working in conjunction with an electric motor producing 49 CV and 205 Nm of torque. As a result of its partnership with Renault, the French company supplies the 15 kW high-voltage starter/generator, the inverter and the 1.2 kWh water-cooled lithium-ion battery.

For now, these are the technical figures the Japanese company has offered for the new Juke Hybrid, but Nissan boasts that this new hybrid powertrain delivers 25% more power than the current petrol engine option, and that it manages to reduce fuel consumption by around 40% in the urban cycle and up to 20% in the combined cycle. In addition, the new Juke Hybrid can set off in fully electric mode and, during testing, Nissan engineers managed to complete 80% of their tests in fully electric mode without exceeding 55 km/h, the system’s limit, combining brief hybrid phases to recharge the battery.

The latter is because the Nissan Juke Hybrid recharges its battery during braking and deceleration phases, where regenerative braking and traditional friction braking work together, so the driver gets a natural feel from the brake pedal. The Juke Hybrid will also feature the e-Pedal we already know from the Leaf, along with a selector to choose between Eco, Normal and Sport driving modes, which modify steering, engine response, throttle, regenerative braking and even the battery’s state of charge, among other things.

Specific changes for the Juke Hybrid

The new Nissan Juke Hybrid will feature specific changes that tell us which version we are looking at. Firstly, logically, the Hybrid nameplate is added, appearing both at the height of the front doors and on the tailgate, and the grille now carries the new Nissan logo. The grille itself now has a new design and a smaller opening area, which improves aerodynamics since the new hybrid system does not need as much airflow for cooling.

In this area, Nissan has also fitted a new system to the grille, which is able to adjust automatically depending on cooling requirements. It also now uses a spoiler of new design and, as with the combustion-engined versions, new two-tone alloy wheel designs will be available in 17-inch size, which can optionally be swapped for the 19-inch aerodynamic wheels fitted to the Nissan Ariya.

Inside the Nissan Juke Hybrid there are also specific changes, with logos as on the exterior, but the most important ones are in its technology: it now features a 7-inch digital instrument cluster with information dedicated to the hybrid system. Moving to the centre console, the e-Pedal system button is now located there, alongside the parking brake button.

Beyond this, there is another detail to bear in mind for the Juke Hybrid: the capacity of its boot has been reduced due to the space taken up by the battery. In this version the boot offers a capacity of 354 litres, which represents a reduction of 68 litres compared with the combustion-engined version; with the seats folded down, its capacity rises to 1,237 litres.

For now, that is all we can tell you about the Nissan Juke Hybrid, as its official debut will be in the summer, so as the date approaches we will have more concrete details on equipment and prices in our country.

Technical specifications of this car

CrossoverNissan Juke15 versions · from 25,275 €