The Nissan Juke Hybrid is not what you think

10 years ago Nissan was at the forefront of the industry with the electric lift and went from force to force until it started stepping on the spot and pretty much disappeared from the game.

Now she's back with a new strategy and tactical weapon called the Hybrid Jock

Keenan Cohen

20/06/2022

Monday, 20 June 2022, 12:06 Updated: 12:22

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She got ahead of them all, then sat on the fence debating.

Why? (Photo: Manufacturer's website)

Nissan has been there before, it has been there before with the Leaf, it has been there before with technology and stacks of data accumulated in experience from the Renault-Nissan alliance.

The one that ran Fluence and Kango electric when most of the manufacturers were content with the battery as an expression of the electric power in the car and the only thing that was charged in them was the cell phone.

On the face of it she had the strongest hand in this poker game among the automakers and then she went on to play quartets.

There are several reasons for this story, the more interesting are of course the ones with the personal stories behind them.

How Carlos Gohan, who represented and pushed for this approach, who was the patron of the electric solution and was also the French savior of this union and who became a persona non greta in Nissan produced an antidote to everything he was involved in.

It's sometimes related to the scars that had to freeze, to Nissan's understanding that with all due respect to its power in the United States, it can not abandon the European market and that like all others, it can not leap again into the world of electricity before doing internships in the hybrid world.

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30 years of Nissan in Israel: Arrived with a carburetor, the future with electricity?

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This blue shade is unique to the hybrid model (Photo: manufacturer's website)

So she redeployes the strategy and outlines the path to her electric world.

In the big plan: more than 75% of models in Europe for electric propulsion by 2026. How to use three hybrid electrical technologies in the Joc, e-Power in Qashqai and Extrail (a gasoline engine used only as a generator) and fully electric propulsion in the Leaf, Lion and small commercial vehicle.

And you're not mistaken, except for the Lion, no car here breaks boundaries or is very innovative, all of them old or based on existing petrol models and none of them are plug-ins.

It's because Nissan is currently looking further into the field of propulsion using solid state batteries, on this technology it has put its chips and there it will focus its ambitions on platforms and models that will come in the more distant future.

Plug in?

She does not really believe in it as a solution.

This is where e-Power technology comes into the picture.

For her part, if our gasoline engines are already so efficient,

And if so many people do not have a proper charging solution (otherwise they would have switched to trams) - a combination of an efficient and clean petrol engine that charges a battery is right now.

Bonus: You can settle for a smaller battery - a piece of consideration when the manufacturers' purchasing people quarrel over each piece of cobalt and lithium at the bottom of the mine.

More on Walla!

Nissan is preparing for an electric revolution, this is the beginning

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Plastic extensions on the 19-inch rims to improve airflow (Photo: Manufacturer's website)

And all this introduction comes for two reasons: the first is that such a launch and a meeting with the manufacturer's people, is an opportunity to gain a broader perspective on what is happening in their home.

The second is that it will help us better understand a car like the Nissan Juke Hybrid.

A car that has nothing new in it, but there is a lot new in it.

Why on the face of it is nothing new in it?

Because we've known the cockroach since 2019 and hybrid cars have been around the world since the 1997 draft Prius. Why is there so much new in it?

Because Nissan approaches hybrid propulsion here in a very sophisticated way.

But a moment before, a few words about the cockroach in general, from the outside and then from the inside.

Not very different at first glance (Photo: Manufacturer's website)

Nissan Juke in its second generation took the list of defects of the original Joke and God knows there were many of these, and went over one by one and fixed them.

Because along with the fact that that cockroach created a new category out of nothing, led everyone to admit that cool cars are something that sells and forced the manufacturers to build crossovers that also need to look special - it also had flaws.

Travel comfort, interior space, noise isolation, fuel consumption and human engineering were prominent.

In all of these the current cockroach gets good scores, in some of them really excelling, read our debut test on it.

From the outside the differences between it and any other cockroach are quite moderate.

The grill is not an open honeycomb but in a "gills" structure to improve airflow, and a glossy black top that represents (it is not clear why) the electrified cars in Nissan, it has the new Nissan logo, hybrid tags on the sides and back, 17-inch rims in a unique design Lou or 19-inch with an aerodynamic plastic cover, rear spoiler and another addition that you do not see, but it is one of the significant - a cover for the rear wheel axle that improves the air flow under the car at high speed.

The blue color in the launch is the unique shade for the hybrid version.

New grill, partially sealed to improve aerodynamics (Photo: Manufacturer's website)

Its cabin is already starting to look a bit out of place in 2022 with the analog indicators in the digital world, with a climate control display in alphanumeric digits (Casio clock digits, for those unfamiliar), with fairly random button scattering and more.

The quality of the materials is still good wherever the hands usually turn, the space is good, there are enough storage compartments, all in all it is the same cockroach.

The differences: an energy display in the dashboard and an RPM meter that is replaced by an energy meter. The launch cars also had inverted leather in the center console and dashboard, excellent seats with leather and inverted leather combination and built-in BOSE speakers. Nothing will reach us. The petrol version - Asante-Tech,

the trunk loses its volume in order to make room for the battery and drops from 422 liters to 354 liters.

The spacing is good, but the look is no longer up to date (Photo: manufacturer's website)

All of these lead us to the significant change in this cockroach, its hybrid propulsion.

On the face of it the story of hybrid propulsion we have known for many years, a gasoline engine meets electric propulsion, they get married and they are born with significant fuel savings and pollutant emissions.

That's the big story here, but in the fine print of the writing between these two, Nissan has introduced some technologies that are also hints at future applications in electric propulsion.

The big business: Combining a 1.6-liter gasoline engine with an electric motor for a combined output of 143 hp, which is 25% more than the power of the 1.0-liter engine of the petrol version (114 hp).

While the manufacturer declares a 20% reduction in fuel consumption.

So far everything is normal and also the fact that the paddle is front is familiar, but the more interesting part is in the link between these paddle units and the wheels.

The multimedia screen is relatively modest, the dashboard is different and combines analog dials and a screen (Photo: Manufacturer's website)

At Nissan, forces have teamed up with its sister company in the alliance - Renault - to produce a very interesting propulsion assembly.

While the engines (petrol and electric) come from Nissan, Renault contributes two more components;

A compact starter and generator unit and the "multi-mode" which is a complex name for a mechanically fascinating gearbox.

This is a box that actually consists of two separate boxes, one with three modes for the electric motor (idle and two gears) and another one with five modes for the petrol engine (idle and four gears).

The result is that the two boxes actually have 15 combinations of transfer ratios (3X5).

But at a second glance at the gearbox of the petrol engine I suddenly notice something strange - it has no torque converter, clutch or straps.

That is, it is not a planetary, robotic, or continuous box.

Checking with the technical people brings up a surprising answer - this is a clutchless box.

What is called in the racing world dog box and there mostly it sells.

The big idea - In contrast to the gear combinations using a "clutch" of a clutch or torque converter, the combination is done through a series of protrusions and matching sockets between the gears of the gears that cling or separate during the combination.

The advantage is a combination with minimum power losses, no need for synchronization mechanism, and excellent transmission speed.

Will run on electricity only up to a speed of 55 km / h (Photo: Manufacturer's website)

Why is this not a problem here?

Because unpleasant transmissions are overcome with a special computer that is responsible for the most accurate combination of gears and using the electric motor to create smooth transitions between gears, in addition, the cockroach always starts its journey with the electric motor and uses it up to a speed of 55 km / h. The paddle is fully electric and unlike other hybrids that allow electric "gliding" even at higher speeds, that of Nissan lacks this capability. Others, a regeneration mode where the electric motor takes part in braking the car and charging the battery as well as a charging mode, in which the petrol engine uses a generator to charge the battery.

Gives up volume in the trunk for the battery (Photo: Manufacturer's website)

The interesting part with its gearbox, is that if you are, what do you call it, normal people - everything is fine - you have a car that you put this stick between the seats near the letter D to drive forward and next to the letter R to drive backwards and in P for double parking .

But if you're the less normal type, it's really cool to think you have a cool piece of technology up front that comes straight from Formula E racing, the end of electric motor sport after the Kibbutz Givat Emek scooter league.

Interesting and comes from the world of racing and Formula E, it is, but the Jockey Hybrid is not a particularly nimble car.

The 1.7 seconds that it lowers from the acceleration time to 100 of the petrol version and does it in 10.1 seconds is not felt on a daily basis, the fact that it responds a little faster to pressing the pedal does.

Faster than the gasoline cockroach, and significantly more powerful (Photo: Manufacturer's website)

The driving conditions at launch that were different from the local test conditions do not allow for a thorough opinion of the car, but the general impressions are of a slightly more comfortable car than the regular cockroach, possibly due to the added weight and also due to the manufacturer's changes in calibration of this version.

In the car we were driving, with 19-inch rims, it is clear that they are primarily responsible for the entry of road noise into the vehicle, when a transition from at least high-quality asphalt completely changed the decibel level in the vehicle.

In terms of wind noise, up to 110 km / h everything is fine, above this speed, a whistle starts from the direction of beams A and mirrors.

The comfort is better than the one remembered from the regular cockroach, a result of the extra weight and damping calibration (Photo: Manufacturer's website)

The Joc has three driving modes, economical, standard and sporty, which change the engine and gearbox response.

The transition to the economical mode certainly moderates the reactions for better fuel consumption, the sporty mode mainly so for the sake of the name, because the vehicle itself is not exactly the material from which cars for fun driving are made.

So again and again I went back to the normal mode which is the most balanced of the three, which is why, throughout the vast majority of the ride I combined the sun with the e-Pedal pedal which increases the regeneration power and allows the cockroach to be driven in almost one pedal.

Just almost because unlike some electric cars, it does not reach a complete stop, but only a crawl of 4-5 km / h. The second application of this arrangement is the possibility to direct as much charge as possible to the relatively small battery it has with only 1.2 kWh.

Copes well with curves, but not exactly fun to play (Photo: Manufacturer's website)

The Nissan Juke is indeed a late entry into a field where competitors have been active for quite a few years.

Nissan's solution in taking technology and perfecting it with off-the-shelf solutions to produce an advantage over competitors Tricky, because for customers, all this challenge is transparent, they are not necessarily interested in what is happening there.

And most of all, they are looking for a comfortable car that will do what they are used to.

Does the cockroach do that?

By and large yes, but we do not jump to conclusions.

Traveling in unfamiliar or normal conditions in a new car, they are never an opportunity for a deep impression, fuel consumption data should always be obtained with reservation, even here, so this is an opportunity only for a general acquaintance with the innovations it has.

This was also the case with the cockroach, so the full review is only done when it gets here.

when will it happen?

According to the plan of the importer Carasso Motors, it should be already in September-October, although like all of them, it also suffers from limited production allocations.

Here, it will be sold as stated in the same level of finish as that of the gasoline version, but will be more expensive than it, that is, we are talking about over 127 thousand shekels.

How much above?

It's not clear, but here's a rule of thumb - Hyundai Kona Hybrid is the most relevant competitor and its current price is NIS 148,000.

If the cockroach wants to bite a share of this market it is unlikely that it will move away from that number.

Joins late, but makes it sophisticated (Photo: Manufacturer's website)

On the technical side: Nissan Juke Hybrid

Engine, propulsion:

petrol, hybrid, front

1,598

143 (combined)

missing

electric - 2 gears, petrol - 4 gears

421

180

160

264

354

10.1 seconds

166 km / h

16.1 km / l

Hyundai buys hybrid

Not yet determined

• vehicle

• Vehicle tests

Tags

• Nissan

• Nissan Juke

• Crash Motors

• Hybrid

• A hybrid car