Hybrid power marks a welcome return to form for the Hyundai Santa Fe rival
The Nissan X-Trail has found itself in a slightly odd place, and a far cry from what it once was. As the brand’s largest SUV in Europe, and one available with seven seats, it is natural to compare it with other seven-seaters such as the Skoda Kodiaq, Kia Sorento, Hyundai Santa Fe and even the behemoth Toyota Highlander.But that was never the point of the X-Trail. It was launched in 2001 as a fairly no-nonsense Land Rover Freelander-esque 4×4, and Nissan made plenty of noise at the time about the four-wheel drive system (two-wheel-drive versions came much later) and uncarpeted boot.The X-Trail’s mission remained much the same for the second generation, though it gained more family-friendly sensibilities, and by that point the X-Trail had to share showroom space with the Nissan Qashqai, which for most people fulfilled the same role. So, for the third generation, the X-Trail grew a little and effectively replaced the seven-seat Qashqai+2. And since the Qashqai tends to be a bit smaller than cars like the Kia Sportage and Toyota RAV4, that allowed the two Nissan SUVs to coexist.The new one mostly picks up where the last one left off. Visually it looks less like a big Qashqai, but in many ways that is still what the X-Trail is. As such, it’s more of a Sportage and RAV4 rival, just one with a small third row of seats.For 2026, it has been facelifted. It’s a bit of a spot-the-difference exercise visually, but there’s a refreshed infotainment system. There’s something odd going on with the powertrain line-up, though. Range at a glanceAt launch, this generation of X-Trail was available with one front-wheel drive mild-hybrid petrol engine and two versions of Nissan’s e-Power full hybrid system: a standard front-wheel drive and the four-wheel drive e-4orce. With the 2026 facelift, the mild hybrid was dropped. VersionPowerNissan X-Trail Mild hybrid 163 †161bhpNissan X-Trail E-Power201bhpNissan X-Trail E-Power E-4Orce210bhpTRANSMISSIONS1-spd reduction gear (full hybrid)CVT (mild hybrid)
