This compact crossover will be the first Nissan in Malaysia to feature the innovative e-POWER hybrid system.
While it certainly has been a VERY long time coming already, but Nissan is finally set to introduce a brand new model in Malaysia rather soon. And this latest addition is set to debut quite the ingenious electrified powertrain, with the (supposedly) upcoming Kicks compact crossover being the first to land locally with the Japanese automaker’s e-POWER hybrid setup.
Now just to make things clear here, the local distributors of Nissan has not officially confirmed that the Kicks is coming over here yet. Though given the fact that it was this particular compact crossover being showcased in the e-POWER livery at the ongoing Malaysia Autoshow 2024, it is all but certain (bar any hopeful surprises) that it will serve as the local launch candidate for this hybrid setup in Malaysia.
It also has to be highlighted too upon mention of the Kicks showcase is that it is looking likely for this compact crossover to be landing over here in its outgoing iteration, instead of its newly-refreshed guise that was first showcased in North America earlier this year. The only positive takeaway from this therefore is that us Malaysians are only to just be four years behind our neighbouring countries in receiving this small Nissan SUV, which is in turn a slightly more palatable thought than the fact that this particular model has been kicking around globally since 2016…
Putting aside the fact that this new Nissan is to already be quite old, this Kicks does still have a few USPs that might at least compensate somewhat for its antiquity. And chief among which is its novel e-POWER series hybrid setup, which very basically is a range extending electrified powertrain that sees for the driven wheels to only be powered by the electric motor, while the petrol engine acts just as a generator to supply electricity to the electric motor.
More specifically here, the Kicks e-POWER sees for a naturally-aspirated 1.2-litre three-pot serving as the on-board generator to feed the 1.57 kWh lithium-ion battery and power its 95 kW front-mounted drive motor. Among the more notable figures quoted with this setup (obtained from our neighbouring countries) is for this small crossover to come with similarly small 4.6 l/100 km fuel consumption claim, all the while outputting a punchy and consistently flat 260 Nm torque band from its 100% e-drive setup.
Regarding the rest of this Kicks meanwhile, the other USPs (in neighbouring markets at least) it has are Nissan’s Zero Gravity seats. This compact crossover also comes packing the Nissan Safety Shield ADAS suite, which brings with it the usual plethora of active driver aids that include Intelligent Emergency Braking, Intelligent Cruise control and Intelligent Trace control to name a few.
With this being a teaser for its potential imminent arrival over here thus far, there has been no firm local pricing on the Kicks just yet. This compact electrified crossover is nevertheless retailing in the region of RM 120,000 to RM 140,000 in Thailand, which is funnily enough in the same price territory as Tan Chong’s other newly-revealed small SUV.
