Nissan's new T32 series X-TRAIL will offer Australian consumers a 1.6-litre diesel engine when it arrives in the third quarter of this year.
The engine, which has already arrived in Australia under the bonnet of the current Dualis, is rated at just 96kW and 320Nm in that application. That's a far cry from the 127kW and 360Nm of the 2.0-litre Renault diesel powering the superseded T31 X-TRAIL. But while Nissan is saying little more than that at this stage, the company is likely to ramp up the output of the 1.6-litre powerplant for the larger and heavier T32 X-TRAIL.
The news was confirmed today by Nissan Australia's General Manager for Corporate Communications, Peter Fadeyev, during the official media launch for the new X-TRAIL – which is already being advertised on TV and dealers are already taking orders.
Pricing for the new model (starting from $27,990) was announced back in February, and motoring.com.au published full details of the new specifications last month.
At the media conference today, Nissan Australia divulged additional details concerning the new X-TRAIL's specification – with the revised Xtronic CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission) featuring a revised belt and pulley system, a much broader range of ratios and D-Step and Eco modes. As reported previously, the new X-TRAIL rides on the CMF (Common Modular Family) architecture suspended by MacPherson struts at the front and a multi-link IRS system.
The T32 X-TRAIL gains advanced safety and driver assist systems like Active Brake Limited Slip, Active Ride Control (which controls porpoising on uphill grades) and Active Trace Control, to adjust the vehicle's handling to match driver input through the wheel and negate understeer or oversteer. Other systems include Lane Departure Warning and Blind Spot Warning – both facilitated by a rear-facing wide-angle camera, rather than the forward-facing cameras typically used in these applications.
As the flagship of the range, the X-TRAIL Ti is equipped as standard with a powered tailgate with 'garage mode' to reduce the opening height for lower ceilings in garages and other undercover parking spaces. X-TRAIL also introduces Nissan Connect – a full-featured bundle of infotainment and communications facilities – in the ST-L and Ti grades, and all variants come packaged with 'Divide and Hide', a highly flexible multi-purpose storage system that can be configured 18 different ways.
Read the full Nissan X-TRAIL launch review on motoring.com.au