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Nissan Leaf Will Become an SUV in Its Third-Generation, But What About the Ariya?

For those who were worried about the future of the Nissan Leaf, the brand’s Europe boss said there’s nothing to worry about. Guillaume Cartier told British magazines that the compact electric hatchback would be replaced by a compact SUV produced at the Sunderland plant. If you think it will be the Ariya, forget about it: it’s something else.
Nissan Leaf Will Be Replaced by New Compact SUV 6 photos
Photo: Nissan
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That is a little weird, considering that the Ariya is a compact SUV based on the CMF-EV platform. The Mégane E-TECH Electric is Renault’s version for the Ariya, and it is also a C-segment car. Nissan’s B-Segment EV will be an electrified Juke, which makes everything even more strange.

Our best guess is that the SUV that will replace the Leaf, possibly with the same name – it would be a pity to kill such a nice one – will be around 4.40 meters (173.2 inches) long. That would make it nicely sit between the 4.14-m (163-in) Juke and the 4.60-m (181.1-in) Ariya.

However, that would kill an electric version of the Qashqai, which is now a 4.39-m (172.8-in) long crossover. Cartier confirmed the electric version of the Qashqai to Auto Express and Autocar, which makes it even harder to understand what its plans are for a new electric SUV to replace its electric hatchback.

The interview with the British magazines probably aimed to talk about the Sunderland plant, a factory that people feared could be closed after Brexit. It currently produces the Leaf, Qashqai, and Juke. Cartier must have wanted to reassure the British public about what it would do without the Leaf, but his words only made things more confusing, as we have shown above.

It may be the case that the Leaf becomes an SUV coupe version of the Qashqai in the compact SUV segment, just like Volkswagen intends to do with the ID.5 to the ID.4. That is the only market configuration in which a new compact electric SUV from Nissan would make sense. The teaser above tells us we may be on the right path.
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About the author: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo
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Motoring writer since 1998, Gustavo wants to write relevant stories about cars and their shift to a sustainable future.
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