Nissan Qashqai Revealed

Press Release

Page 1: Overview
Page 2: Exterior Design
Page 3: Interior Design
Page 4: Chassis/Engine (I)
Page 5: Chassis/Engine (II)
Page 6: Features
Page 7: Market
Page 8: History

Exterior Design

• Innovative crossover design

• Duality of purpose

• Agile stance appeals to the heart…

• … while sturdy SUV look appeals to the head

• Designed in Tokyo and London for global release

Creating a car that refuses to conform to the norm requires equally non-conformist thinking. Inspiration for QASHQAI came not from other cars on the road – with two notable exceptions – but from culture, food, fashion, art, technology and other everyday influences.

Stephane Schwarz, Design Director at Nissan Design Europe and father of the QASHQAI project, explains: “We, as consumers, are changing. We no longer want to be pigeonholed… and that applies to whatever it is we are buying. We are looking for more creative expression in everything around us.�

Fusion of art and technology

“We are also expecting greater duality from the things we buy: for example, we want warmth from a piece of equipment – a fusion of art and technology. These are very individual, hedonistic times and the first task we, as designers, had to understand was the mindset of the new car buyer.�

It quickly became clear to the team that the new car market was becoming more complex and that as far as many car buyers looking in the C-segment were concerned, conventional hatchbacks and sedans like the Volkswagen Golf and Ford Focus were no longer exciting enough.

“The car has become an extension of one’s personality and fewer people are prepared to be seen as conventional any more,� says Schwarz. “To cater for them, we started to create a new type of car.�

Break with convention

Work on QASHQAI began in 2003, with the development of a show car that broke cover at the 2004 Geneva Salon. The QASHQAI concept car showed that Nissan was prepared to break with convention with its next offering in the C-segment of the market.

The production version of QASHQAI differs from the concept in a number of important areas but retains its core crossover rationale. Like the Nissan Murano – along with the concept, the only car to influence the design development of the production version – QASHQAI has been designed to appeal to buyers on more than one level.

Its clear combination of sporting attitude with the space and ability offered by a typical compact SUV makes it stand out in a segment of the market full of worthy but dull rivals.

Individual identity

“We have adapted some of Murano’s stance and image for QASHQAI and there are one or two design cues common to both – the upswept side window graphic for example – but QASHQAI is far from being a clone of Murano. Like brothers, they both clearly belong to the same family but have their own individual identities,� says Schwarz.

Design development began in Japan – at the time, Schwarz was Associate Product Chief Designer at Nissan Design Centre in Tokyo, where he worked with product planning, marketing and engineering for various concepts before they reached final design selection for production. QASHQAI was one of those projects.

Once it had been given the go-ahead, the project moved to the newly opened Nissan Design Europe (NDE) facility in London where Schwarz and his team took up his current post in December 2004. NDE is home to more than 60 international designers, modellers and support staff, with a mission to design the next generation of Nissan cars for Europe.

NDE’s first ground-up project

QASHQAI is the first ground-up project to have been produced at NDE and follows work undertaken at the facility to turn the Micra hatchback into the recently launched Micra C+C coupé/convertible. And rather than being a car for just Europe, QASHQAI is to be sold globally.

As the word implies, a crossover merges contradictory design and packaging influences from two or more market segments into one vehicle. The key design elements that turn QASHQAI into a crossover can be found above and below the waistline.

The sleek silhouette of the cambering roof suggests sporting agility. Dynamically angled A-pillars meet the roof at its highest point at the top of the windscreen, from where it falls away, coupé-like, towards the rear. The roofline culminates in a subtle flick up into a small spoiler integrated into the tailgate surround. To ensure a light and airy cockpit, a large panoramic glass roof has been developed

Athletic design

QASHQAI’s sportscar-inspired glasshouse proportion accentuates the athleticism of the overall design: Schwarz likens the shape of the front and side windows to a visor on a crash helmet, again promising sporting performance. The side profile follows the movement of the roofline and finishes with the small upswept triangular third window first seen on Murano.

In contrast, the high waistline suggests an inner strength, which is accentuated by strong shoulders and pronounced wheel arches. Typical SUV features include the bluff, almost vertical, nose and the contrasting colour of the sturdy bumpers and side protection panels. Higher ground clearance than conventional hatchbacks also hints at SUV capability.

Complex yet subtle curves over the wheel arches and on the doors allow constantly changing reflections to soften what would otherwise be a comparatively large expanse of metal.

Dimensionally, QASHQAI sits between C-segment hatchbacks and SUVs. Sitting on a wheelbase of 2630mm, it is 1610mm tall, 1780mm wide and 4310mm long. While the wheelbase and width match average figures for all both types of rival, QASHQAI is about 100mm longer than a typical hatchback but 150mm shorter than a typical SUV. Similarly, it is taller than rival hatchbacks by between 100-150mm yet up to 130mm shorter than an SUV.

Greater ground clearance

Ground clearance is 200mm and the vehicle has approach and departure angles of 19.2 deg and 30.2 deg… better than a hatchback but unable to match the figures set by purpose designed 4x4s.

“These figures put QASHQAI in a unique position in the market place, offering more space than a hatchback at the same time as being more compact and manoeuvrable than an SUV,� says Schwarz. “As the figures show, it has not been conceived as a 4x4 and should not be thought of as one. The four-wheel drive option is mainly to provide better traction and more security in all conditions on the road.�

Contradictory impressions

“Throughout the design process we were looking to create contradictory impressions: a seductive car that turned heads at first glace yet was also obviously durable; a car with a fun to drive agility yet that due to its high seating position, would also provide occupant protection and inner strength.�

“And through it all we had to ensure the car remains resolutely usable. We benchmarked the most practical of its conventional rivals to ensure QASHQAI did not fall short in terms of occupant space and luggage room,� he adds.

“Contrasts that at first sight appear to be mutually exclusive are, in fact, what gives QASHQAI its energy,� says Schwarz.