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Last August, Nissan reportedly gave its dealers a preview of a new electric vehicle — one that promises to merge the compact crossover body style Americans want to buy with 300 miles of range and an affordable price tag. That vehicle is supposed to arrive in 2021…but the fact that company debuted the Ariya EV concept at the Tokyo Motor Show in October and hasn’t stopped geeking out about it since makes us wonder if the Ariya is actually the much-anticipated SUV in question.
Nissan also brought the Ariya concept to CES 2020 in January, playing up its sports car-level speed and handling delivered through the company’s revolutionary (and oddly-named) “e-4orce” all-wheel-drive system. Then Nissan dropped an interview with the Ariya’s designer Giovanny Arroba in February. Now, it’s March, and Nissan is dribbling out further tidbits about the Ariya — like how its kumiko faux-grille serves as a shield for the car’s safety sensors. That’s an awful lot of new information dripping out for a concept car that debuted six months ago.
Then there’s the fact that the Ariya, for a concept car, looks awfully close to production-ready. (Certainly more so than Audi’s overlanding EV concept with its drone-fleet headlamps.) If we were to bet, Nissan is probably trying to make the Ariya happen for a reason…and that reason is that it’s probably real close to the production crossover we’re all going to want to buy next year.
