Hi, I have now driven almost 16000 miles in my Qashqai ePower , over the last 18,months, it is a hybrid, of sorts, in that it has both an electric motor and an ICE, but it is not a PHEV.
The e Power , unlike other hybrids and PHEV’s has a 100% electric drive just like a full EV ,it’s driven by an electric motor, with no gear changes , almost silent running (most of the time) , it’s very smooth and leaves most ice cars standing at traffic light etc. it has been a revelation!
Rather than plugging it in , somewhere? at ‘who knows what cost’ – especially on Motorways? the battery is charged by a 3 cylinder ‘on board ‘ petrol driven ICE which , and this is the great difference from PHEV’s ‘ is not connected to the drive chain, only to the battery- no need to plug in, & no anxiety over running out of charge, just top, up with petrol , and the engine cuts in when needed & tops up the battery & is averaging just over 56mpg.
Some reports state that the 3 cylinder petrol engine can appear to sound quite noisy at times, especially if stationary at traffic lights etc., because it revs at quite a high speed to enable it to charge the battery, but I believe that this noise (problem ) that some people are reporting is because the car is otherwise so very quiet that they are getting caught off guard when the engine cuts in, at revolutions that they are not used to experiencing of course, it is also worth remembering that the Qashqai engine is not running all the time like a 100% ice car, it only cuts in when the battery needs a charge?
I drive mine in B & eco mode locally, and on most of my short local journeys (3-6 miles ) in traffic, the engine stays off, but when I occasionally slip into sport, it will come on, and using D drive, in standard , or sport mode,on the Motorway it does come on quite often but is not repeat ‘not’ intrusive – I drive it like I would any other car, I’ll get what mpg I get, currently averaging 56+.
As I have mentioned previously, in sport mode at traffic lights I leave most cars standing, it takes up the drive instantly, smoothy and quietly just like any other electric drive – sometime the engine cuts in , if the load on the battery is too high, but mainly it races away silently.
To summarise, it is not a hybrid drive, it is a 100% battery powered fully electric drive just like Tesla or the I D VW’s , etc, the difference being ‘the way the battery is charged’, & it is a much smaller cheaper battery ( for now ), and therefore the car is considerably cheaper than similarly kitted out EV’s.