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By Jonathan Crouch

In Nismo form, Nissan's Ariya shows its fiery side. Jonathan Crouch drives it.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 35

Nissan's fastest Ariya EV, this Nismo model, isn't the quickest or most dynamic mid-sized performance electric crossover you could choose, but it might still charm you with its rapid pace, attractive looks and classy cabin.

Backgroundword count: 137

In 40 years of history, Nissan's Nismo performance brand has produced some interesting cars. Some great (the GT-R Nismo supercar), some good (the 370Z Nismo performance coupe) and some not so good (the Juke Nismo frantic small SUV). What it hasn't yet engineered - until now - is a performance EV. This is it, the Ariya Nismo. We've had plenty of performance-minded EVs based on mid-sized crossovers to date; some quite fast (like the Volkswagen ID.4 GTX with 340PS). And some very fast (like the Hyundai IONIQ 5N with 650PS). With 435PS, the Ariya Nismo falls somewhere in between. It's the first Nismo-badged Nissan to be offered in Europe since the GT-R was forced into early retirement by tighter emissions regulations. Can it really be a fitting follow-up to that memorable car? Let's take a closer look.

Driving Experienceword count: 422

Given the heritage of the Nismo sub-brand, you might hope for quite a lot here. Rest to 62mph in dispatched in 5 seconds exactly, if you select the feisty 'Nismo' setting that's been added to the usual selection of drive modes and adds a synthesised engine note. But that doesn't increase the top speed you'd usually get from a twin motor Ariya, still limited to 124mph. So what's been done here by Nissan's motorsport division, apart from tweaking the motor software for a few more braked horses? Well the dual motor e-4ORCE four-wheel drive system has been tweaked so that more of its torque output is biased towards the rear. It's variable to the road surface beneath, dependent on which the front can take up to 60% of motor output, the rear up to 75%. The engineers have finessed the suspension too though disappointingly, adaptive damping isn't on the agenda, even as an option. Instead, Nismo's contented itself with firming up the springs, dampers and anti-roll bars - by quite a lot actually, as you'll discover the first time you take to a poorly-surfaced road; the rear rebound damping is a full 67% firmer than an ordinary Ariya. You'll feel that over speed humps. If it was going to do this, you'd hope that Nismo might have completed the job by giving the steering a bit more feel and beefing up the brakes. But there's nothing like that here, so you're not as encouraged as you should be to sample the improved traction offered by the bespoke Michelin Pilot Sport EV tyres. And of course there's certainly not the cornering agility that you'd get in the pricier rivals mentioned earlier with their systems able to shuffle torque around between their rear wheels at power through the bends. And those kinds of set-ups are welcome when you're trying to hustle 2.2-tonnes of family-sized EV through a testing set of turns. Pretty much everything else is much as it would be with the conventional twin motor version of this car - with the exception (obviously) of the 261 mile drive range figure you get from the 87kWh battery, which is 58 miles down on the ordinary Ariya e4ORCE model and the least you'll get in this segment. Unlike with some rivals, there are no steering wheel brake regen paddles that might encourage you to try and improve that range; just the usual Ariya 'e-Pedal' button, which maximises regen harvesting to the point (up to 2.2g) where the actual brake pedal is hardly ever needed.

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