Cardiff, Wales - Nissan has revealed the facelifted version of its X-Trail, and the newcomer is due to touch down on local turf around November this year.
Although we’ve already seen the US-spec, Rogue-badged version of this vehicle, the European-market X-Trail that you see here will be more similar to the local model, although SA specs and pricing will only be finalised closer to the time.
The most exciting technological addition to the X-Trail is Nissan’s ProPilot semi-autonomous driving technology, which will be available in Europe from 2018. Our contact at Nissan SA said that local models would have “certain elements of Intelligent Mobility”, although exact details will only be made known at launch.
According to Nissan, ProPilot is able to control the steering, acceleration and braking within a single lane on well-marked highways, both at high cruising speeds and in heavy congestion. Other available ‘Intelligent Mobility’ gadgets include Emergency Braking with Pedestrian Recognition and Rear Cross Traffic Alert.
The X-Trail’s exterior alterations are more apparent upfront, where it wears a much larger ‘V-motion’ grille as well as a redesigned bumper and revised headlights sporting a ‘boomerang’ daytime running light signature. Full LED headlights are available too, now sporting an adaptive front lighting system.
The side view is unaltered, apart from new alloy wheel designs and while the rear end retains all its familiar angles, the taillights have a new inner design featuring a boomerang element and darkened lower section, and the bumper has been redesigned.
The interior retains the same basic design as its predecessor, but Nissan does seem to have put considerable effort into the details, with higher-quality materials on the dashboard, a new flat-bottomed steering wheel and fresh seat trim options. Top Euro models also gain an eight-speaker Bose premium sound system as standard fitment.
The European engine line-up continues unchanged and it’s fairly likely that South Africa’s range will also carry on as before, although there are two Euro options that would certainly make neat additions to our line-up – those being a 120kW 1.6 turbopetrol (already found in the Qashqai) and a 130kW 2-litre turbodiesel.
Those would give Nissan’s X-Trail the ammo it needs to challenge the upper end of the Hyundai Tucson range.