- The Nissan Ariya is a stylish all-electric SUV distinguished by its premium interior and smooth ride
- With a significant price cut for 2024, the Ariya now starts at $40,980, including delivery| Price it your way
- On sale now | See Nissan Ariya models for sale near you
Americans buy more midsize SUVs than any other type of vehicle. That’s why nearly every automaker has waded into electric vehicles by building an electric midsize SUV.
Midsize crossover electric vehicles (EVs) are almost common enough to be cookie-cutter-similar. But Nissan has set itself apart with its effort, the 2024 Nissan Ariya.
Experience plays a big part. Nissan, after all, sold an EV before Tesla did with the original Leaf.
But design panache goes the rest of the way. The Ariya’s best feature is its tasteful, spacious cabin. It almost has enough personality to pass itself off as a luxury car’s cockpit.
Let’s explore what Nissan offers in the Ariya.
Nissan will sell the Ariya in multiple trim levels, with a choice of two battery sizes and front- or all-wheel-drive configurations.
Passenger Room and Comfort
EVs have no transmissions and, therefore, no transmission hump down the center of the cabin between the seats.
Some designers don’t seem to do much with that fact. Others take inspiration from it and craft decidedly open, airy spaces.
Credit Nissan with some inspiration. The Ariya offers 101.2 cubic feet of passenger space – a figure you might expect from a larger car. Smooth surfaces and a panoramic moonroof add to the sensation – no one feels cramped in an Ariya.
Nissan is famous for its unique Zero Gravity seats. Designed based on NASA research, they keep the body close to a neutral position to minimize fatigue. Our editors have loved them for years.
The Ariya offers them in the first row – heated and ventilated at higher trim levels.
Features and Tech
Many EV designers, following Tesla’s lead, build minimalist cabins by stripping out features. Nissan designers have managed a difficult balance, borrowing the effortless cool of a trendy minimalist design but keeping the controls you’re used to.
They achieve this with sleek touch-capacitive buttons embedded in stylish gray wood trim. It looks less crowded than a button-filled dash but is full of useful controls. There’s also that crucial volume knob we all need to avoid fumbling for simple tasks.
A pair of 12.3-inch screens are mounted together in a single housing as if they were one wide screen. An intuitive user interface lets you swipe information back and forth between them – one of the most natural tech experiences we’ve had.
Most trim levels also get a head-up display that projects critical driving information like speed and turn-by-turn directions onto the windshield, letting the driver know what they need to know without taking their eyes off the road.
Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard, and Amazon’s Alexa is built in. Between Alexa and a “Hello Nissan” voice command system, you can control nearly every aspect of the car without taking your hands off the wheel.
Nissan’s ProPilot Assist driver assistance suite has advanced features like adaptive cruise control. ProPilot Assist 2.0, found on higher trim levels, builds on the standard system by adding hands-free highway driving and assistance with changing lanes.
Materials and Design
The Ariya may be Nissan designers’ finest work. At higher trim levels, it could almost pass as an effort from the brand’s Infiniti luxury division.
From the outside, you can see Maxima and Murano lines in the curved roof. But its smooth, grille-less front fascia and narrow LED lighting scheme signal EV to everyone in traffic.
Available two-tone color schemes lend an air of sophistication. And a few of the colors are distinctive choices – we especially like the Sunrise Copper Pearl, shiny as a freshly minted penny. In an era when more than three-quarters of buyers buy a grayscale color, it pops.
Inside, elegant touches abound. A wide, copper strip down the horizontal center of the dash is pure flare for no functional purpose – meant as a compliment here. A matching line in the center console carries the theme back.
Capacitive-touch buttons are embedded in cool gray wood trim for an elegant look. Our test drivers love how this gives it the clean look of modern EVs but the simplicity of buttons, not menus, for most climate and entertainment functions.
Upper trims offer plush Nappa leather seating and unusual color combinations, including a lovely blue/gray combination more interesting than the usual black-or-beige options.
Cargo Room and Flexibility
The Ariya offers a class-competitive 23 cubic feet of cargo space behind the rear seats and 60 with the rear seats folded flat.
But designers put thought into how you’ll store things day-to-day. A pop-up divider creates storage space under the rear cargo floor organized into several cubbies.
Up front, a drawer slides out of the center of the dashboard. A flat tray on its top can serve as a hideaway laptop desk (when parked), while the space under holds stray items. It’s a clever use of what would otherwise be dead space.
The center console – the armrest-like space between the driver and front passenger – adjusts backward and forward.
Driving a lot of cars, we get picky about interior lighting. Poorly planned lights blind the driver with glare. The Ariya excels with soft, diffuse lighting from the floors and door panels. A back-seat passenger can easily find a dropped AirPod without turning on a light to blind the driver.
It’s the kind of small touch that tells you designers lived with this car for a while before sending it to dealers to sell.
Build and price your own version of the 2024 Nissan Ariya to see this week’s KBB Fair Purchase Price, 5-Year Cost to Own, and more, or check out Ariya models for sale near you
