We try out Nissan’s e-POWER technology

It’s 2022 and one of the biggest challenges brought to us by this year is the inconsistency of fuel prices. Sometimes the prices go up, and sometimes they go down but the former is more common. And of course, we know that one of the solutions to this is electric vehicles. Nissan Philippines is definitely being aggressive in continuing its push for electrification with the upcoming introduction of its e-POWER technology in the local market. 

For a country that still has not fully accepted electrification, is it a step in the right direction for the Japanese brand? Our friends from Nissan Philippines invited us to be one of the first to try out their e-POWER technology and here’s our experience.

What is e-POWER?

What is e-POWER? you might ask. According to Nissan, it is a self-charging and a 100% electric motor drive system powered by an efficient gasoline engine that offers an exciting and fun drive. It utilizes the Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) technology from the Nissan LEAF full EV with the addition of a gasoline engine used for charging. In other words, it is a gas-powered electric motor. 

This isn’t your usual hybrid powertrain as in that case, the gasoline engine, battery, or the combination of both can send power to the wheels. In the case of e-POWER, only the battery can send power to the wheels as the engine is not connected to them. Instead, the gasoline engine charges the electric motor.

In addition, e-POWER will surely help the environment as it has less emissions because fuel is only used to power the battery making it more eco-friendly.

How does e-POWER work?

Like mentioned earlier, e-POWER is quite different from your traditional hybrid powertrains. It isn’t a full electric powertrain either. Again, the e-POWER system consists of a gasoline-powered engine, and an electric motor. The gasoline engine is used to charge the electric motor while the electric motor is used to drive the vehicle. The gasoline engine itself is not connected in any way to the wheels and all power comes from the electric motor.

Range anxiety is also eliminated as you do not need to worry about finding an EV charging station once your battery is fully-depleted. Instead, you only need to drive to the nearest gas station as you would in a regular internal combustion engine (ICE) powered vehicle. This is good for those who aren’t ready to switch to full EVs because of that reason.

What is e-POWER like to drive?

Like I mentioned, Nissan Philippines gave us the chance to experience the e-POWER technology way ahead of its introduction in the local market. In fact, the vehicle we drove is still wrapped in camouflage. We do hope someone snapped photos of us on the road.

Anyway, like any other hybrid or fully-electric vehicle, there is no sound once you start the vehicle. It’s as smooth as keeping the vehicle off. And once you get moving, that’s where you’ll instantly feel how e-POWER drives exactly as a full EV would with lots of torque instantly in use as you press your foot on the accelerator. With no shifting from a gearbox, it’s also very smooth.

You will hear the gasoline engine activate from time to time to recharge the battery. This is very much obvious during hard acceleration as the battery will need to get more energy from the gas engine in order to not easily deplete its charge level.

With Nissan’s e-Pedal, depending on your selected driving mode, the vehicle recharges the battery through regenerative braking. Both Eco and Sport modes allow for more aggressive braking, allowing you to bring the vehicle to a crawl which is very convenient for city driving. This is all done with the accelerator pedal only, without the need to step on the brake pedal.

And of course, fuel efficiency with e-POWER is actually quite excellent. Nissan claims a fuel consumption of just 23.8 km/L in mixed city and highway driving conditions. This is around twice that of a traditional ICE vehicle which can do around 10-12 km/L.

So does it feel any different? Actually, not much. Other than the fact that it is extremely quiet when driving at city speeds and how instant torque comes in, driving a vehicle with Nissan’s e-POWER system feels pretty much like your traditional ICE-powered vehicle which is a good thing.

What does this mean for the Philippines?

For a country like ours where people still have not fully-embraced electrification, despite the various hybrid and electric vehicle models available in the market, e-POWER is Nissan’s step into pushing for that. We definitely look forward to the availability of Nissan e-POWER.

Photos by Martin Wu of AutoPH.