Unlike Toyota or even Honda, the Japanese automaker Nissan isn't precisely flexing any biceps on the North American market as of late. Instead, they only care about the incremental 2024MY updates and price hikes.
If you look at Nissan's newsreel for America, it's all about the 2024 model year's Benjamins. More precisely, they updated the price lists for the 2024 Nissan Kicks (starting at $20,790), 2024 Nissan Frontier (kicking off at $29,770), 2024 Nissan Altima (from $25,730), 2024 Nissan Pathfinder ($35,810) or 2024 Titan ($45,770).
In fact, the only thing worth mentioning is the 2024 Frontier also comes with a Hardbody Edition, evoking the great truck times of the 1980s. Anyway, the same happens across the EV sector, where the 2024 Leaf comes with a new starting MSRP of $28,140 and not much else. Meanwhile, the 2023 Ariya is still a brand-new all-electric crossover that went on sale in the fall of 2022.
It combines the latest Nissan tech, including the e-4ORCE all-wheel drive with ProPILOT Assist 2.0 and an EPA-estimated driving range of up to 304 miles (489 km) on a single charge to bolster the zero-emissions offerings from one of the pioneers of the modern EV revolution. But because Nissan was late at the EV crossover party and now Tesla's Model Y holds the crown and throne, the Japanese carmaker already needs to do something with Ariya to spice up things.
Recently, our resident spy photographer partners caught a menacing Nissan Ariya devouring the Nürburgring Nordschleife straights and corners. This immediately prompted the simplest of questions – is Nismo finally going all-electric? The company appears to be in the road and track-testing phase of the research and development process, so we don't expect an Ariya Nismo to appear too soon.
However, that's valid in the real world – not across the imaginative realm of digital car content creators, where things undoubtedly move a lot faster. The Halo oto channel on YouTube provides fresh automotive info corroborated with their virtual designs; now, there are some CGI ideas about this new Ariya CUV after they, too, witnessed the feisty EV's recent progress.
As such, the resident pixel master has prepared the unofficial design of the hypothetical, unconfirmed 2024 or 2025 Nissan Ariya Nismo, which comes complete with the usual array of distinctive red touches and mild aerodynamic improvements. However, it remains to be seen if Nissan actually comes out with a Nismo version or if they just wanted to put to the test new powertrain options.
Until then, do take all this with a pinch of salt, as always. Meanwhile, the 2023 model year Nissan Ariya is finally available in the United States to battle the Tesla Model Y best-seller and all the other compact EV crossover SUVs. Pricing kicks off at $43,190 for the 2WD model with just 216 miles of range, while the variant with 304 miles on a charge is $47,190.
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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