It’s taken many years to get here but Nissan finally has an electric SUV to compete with the heavy hitters of the EV space.
The 2025 Nissan Ariya is new to Australia, but first broke cover in 2020 and hit the road overseas in 2022. Delays triggered by Covid and slow Australian homologation have been among the issues.
Its Australian arrival gives the EV pioneer – which paved the way with the niche Leaf locally way back in 2012 – a more serious contender in the sweet spot of the electric car market.
READ MORE: Nissan Ariya Australia price and equipment confirmed
READ MORE: We road test the Nissan Ariya EV… three years ago.
READ MORE: Nissan Ariya NISMO targets Tesla Model Y, Kia EV6 GT and Hyundai Ioniq 5 N
READ MORE: Nissan’s unnamed C-crossover EV promised for Australia by 2027
Priced from $55,840 before on-road costs, the five-seater Ariya has the likes of the Tesla Model Y, Kia EV5, BYD Sealion 7, Toyota bZ4X, Subaru Solterra, XPeng G6 and upcoming Zeekr 7X in its crosshairs.
2025 Nissan Ariya price and equipment
There are four models in the Nissan Ariya family, which kicks off with the Engage, priced from $the aforementioned 55,840 plus on-road costs.
For that you get 19-inch alloys, smart key entry, dual-zone ventilation and dual 12.3-inch screens with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. There’s also a suite of driver assistance tech that includes auto braking, speed sign recognition, driver monitoring, blind spot warning and lane keeping.
It’s powered by a single 160kW/300Nm electric motor driving the front wheels fed by a 63kWh battery claimed to provide just 385km of WLTP range.
For another $4000 ($59,840 plus on-roads) the Advance gets a mix of cloth and synthetic leather, heated front seats and steering wheel, power adjustable front seats, 360-degree camera, tinted rear windows and a 10-speaker Bose sound system.
The Ariya Advance gets the same single motor drivetrain with 385km of range.
The Advance+ ($63,840 plus on-road costs) adds a larger 87kWh battery that extends the claimed WLTP range to 504km.
The more potent battery also unleashes more power from the motor, taking it to 178kW/300Nm. However, the additional weight of the battery means it’s marginally slower to 100km/h at 8.1 seconds versus 8.0 seconds.
Plus it picks up a panoramic sunroof, head-up display, ventilated front seats, heated rear seats as well as classier trim with Ultrasuede inserts.
Topping the Ariya line-up is the Evolve ($71,840 plus on-road coats), which also picks up a dual-motor all-wheel drive system that Nissan markets as e-4ORCE.
It gets dual 160kW/300Nm motors for a combined 290kW/600Nm (battery limitations mean it can’t provide maximum power to both motors at the same time). The additional weight and performance – the 0-100km/h time drops to 5.6 seconds – lowers the claimed range to 487km.
Additional gear for the Ariya Evolve includes 20-inch wheels, blue Nappa leather trim, a digital centre rear vision mirror, power sliding centre console and some matte chrome finishes around the windows.
The Evolve also picks up a three-phase onboard charger, something that ups the AC charge rate from 7.4kW to 22kW (the first 400-odd examples of the Ariya into the country will all get that three-phase charger before lesser variants drop back to the slower AC charger).
That three-phase charger is also optional on the Advance+ model. There’s another benefit: for the models with single-phase charging that plug into an 11kW three-phase charger – such as Tesla destination/home chargers – the car will only take about 3.7kW. Stepping up to the three-phase charger allows it to take the full 11kW from that charger, and up to 22kW from chargers with the hardware to supply that much power.
If you wnat to know more about single- and three-phase charging, check out our advice piece here.
DC charging across all models is limited to a modest 130kW, which translates to a 10 to 80 per cent charge time of around 35 minutes for the Engage and Advance and 40 minutes for the Advance+ and Evolve.
2025 Nissan Ariya: What we think
The headline price on the Nissan Ariya is tempting, its claimed EV range less so.
Those shopping among the heavy hitters of the EV world will be pleasantly surprised with the sharp(ish) price of entry as well as some distinctly Japanese style, right down to the Kumiko pattern inside that is supposed to mimic a Japanese lantern.
But just 385km of WLTP range is towards the skinny-end for circa-$60K EVs and would likely translate to around 340km in the real world. Take it on a freeway and that could drop to 300km, possibly less.
That reduces its usefulness and means that most buyers will likely opt for the bigger battery that provides more meaningful driving distance between charges.
Those bigger battery versions – the Advance+ and Evolve – are all we sampled at the media launch.
Those have up to 504km of WLTP range. Impressively, during our drive the range estimator continually suggested it would get close to that, using something like 18kWh per 100km.
That single-motor Advance+ isn’t overloaded with thrust, but it’s thoroughly acceptable.
Nissan makes no secret of the fact it hasn’t been tuned for Tesla-like spriteliness.
Instead it’s more relaxed, leaning on the torque for an effortless surge.
There’s some occasional friskiness as the inside front wheel scrabbles for traction, but for the most part it’s well behaved.
Step up to the Evolve and the addition of a second motor makes for swifter acceleration, although – again – it’s restrained in the way it kicks in. It doesn’t have Tesla feistiness, for example.
Select Sport mode via a reactive touchpad embedded in the wood of the centre console (there are similar pads with the ventilation controls on the dash) and there’s some energetic whirry sounds and more alertness to the throttle. The steering weights up, too, although it’s never bursting with meaningful feedback.
The openness to the front of the cabin also creates an interesting dynamic.
With plenty of open space on the floor between the front seats there’s no console to brace your left knee on. Combined with seats built for comfort ahead of support it reinforces the plush rather than performance focus of the Ariya.
Dual screens have an interesting stepped wave connecting them, which brings the centre screen closer to the front seat occupants, in turn making it easier to reach.
In the rear, there’s more room than you’d get in a similarly sized petrol SUV, but it doesn’t match the knee space of a Model Y or Kia EV5.
The all-wheel drive Evolve also gets less underfloor storage space in the boot due to the extra hardware beneath the removable floor panels.
On the road the Advance+ is firm in the suspension and can jiggle and wiggle over repeated bumps. In short it’s not as settled as some.
However, it is impressively quiet.
The 20-inch wheels of the Evolve send more of those jolts into the cabin but sending traction to all four wheels makes it more surefooted when you’re pushing on.
And slick cornering credentials make the Ariya a confident EV through bends and on quick direction changes.
The vehicle-to-grid (V2G) functionality Nissan offers in the Leaf is lacking in the Ariya.
Blame it partly on plugs and partly on timing.
Whereas the Leaf uses the Japanese focused CHAdeMO plug the Ariya has switched to the CCS combo plug that is the default for Australia. While those CCS plugs now have an international standard for V2G that standard wasn’t in place when the Ariya first hit the road overseas back in 2022.
2025 Nissan Ariya: Verdict
The Nissan Ariya may have been something of a revelation when it was first unveiled years ago but in 2025 it’s up against a raft of seriously impressive rivals.
That makes it a worthy contender against stiff EV competition but a vehicle that doesn’t shift the electric car goalposts.
That said, it gives Nissan a proper stake in Australia’s fast growing electric SUV market with a car with impressive design touches and refinement.
It also adds some Japanese depth for the Nissan brand as well as design thoughtfulness to an increasingly busy market segment.
Score: 3.5/5
2025 Nissan Ariya Advance+ price and specifications
Price: From $63,840 plus on-road costs
Basics: EV, 5 seats, 5 doors, SUV, FWD
Range: 504km
Battery capacity: 87kWh
Battery warranty: 8 years/160,000km (guarantee of 75% of original capacity)
Energy consumption: 19.1kWh/100km
Motors: 1 front 178kW/300Nm
AC charging: 7.4kW, Type 2 plug
DC charging: 130kW, CCS combo plug
0-100km/h: 8.1 seconds
