2023 Ariya brings Nissan’s quirky style to an electric vehicle with awkward results

2023 Nissan Ariya Platinum+: Bringing Nissan quirkiness to the EV game.

Price: $62,770 as tested.

Conventional wisdom: Car and Driver found the vehicle to be “spacious inside, quiet around town,” with a “decent driving range,” but disliked the “poky acceleration with front-wheel drive configuration, styling is polarizing, lacks driving excitement.”

Marketer’s pitch: “Elegantly exhilarating.”

Reality: Awkwardly electrified.

What’s new: The whole EV. The Ariya is basically a hatchback that sits high like an SUV, setting its sights on the Hyundai Ioniq5 or Kia EV6.

The Ariya comes in single-motor front-wheel drive or dual motor all-wheel drive.

The Ariya offers some of the largest variations of battery range among various trim levels of any EV that’s come across Mr. Driver’s Seat’s driveway. A Venture+ model has a range of 304 miles; the Platinum+ tested has 265, and most are between 265 and 289 miles. But lesser versions can run out of juice at 205 or 216 miles. (I’m running out of juice just trying to keep them straight.)

Competition: Volkswagen ID.4, Hyundai Ioniq5, Kia EV6, Tesla Model Y, Volvo XC40 Recharge, Mustang Mach-e

Driver’s Seat: Sitting in the Ariya feels a lot like sitting in an early Prius, and not just because of the batteries running the show. The seating position and the contact with the steering wheel has an awkward feel — no matter how I tried, I couldn’t get myself comfortable in the seat.

My accelerator foot suffered more pain than it had in a while, and the positioning felt wrong. If you’re delicate like me, a longer test drive may be in order. (Good luck with that these days, though, as real-life showroom examples remain scarce.)

Up to speed: The 87-Kwh dual-motor setup in the AWD model produces 389 horsepower. It roars in Sport mode, getting to 60 mph in 5.6 seconds, according to Car and Driver. (The lesser dual motor makes 335 horsepower, and the single motor makes 214 or 238 depending on the model chosen.)

The Platinum plus is no slouch in Standard mode, either, but just don’t accidentally hit Eco mode while you’re moving. I’ve experienced Eco modes that cut down on the pedal force, but this one kneecaps it. That should certainly prolong the battery life, though.

One very unusual complaint — the pedals have weird configuration. The brake pedal sits really close to the accelerator, and I forever found my size 11.5s scraping it.

On the other side, the accelerator sits really close to the footwell edge in the center as well. On one trip I actually couldn’t get my foot into position between the brake and the center well easily, and I kept hitting the center well.

The e-step switch provides pretty much one-pedal driving — lift your foot off the accelerator and the engine starts to brake to restore power to the battery. I had mixed success with this function and found myself switching it on and off frequently.

But when this function is turned off, the brakes are pitiful. They seem to arrive late to the party in a frightening manner. I had one episode where a landscaping crew was passing the other direction on a narrow road, and when I braked to let them pass, I felt like it was a near collision until the car did what I expected.

Shiftless: The shifter follows the path of Lexus’ old infotainment controls — a square “knob” that sort of magically floats as you guide it. Pull for Drive and push for Reverse. A button gives you Park. The emergency brake is conveniently located just in front of the shifter, a nice touch.

On the road: The Ariya handling is nothing to write home about. In all modes, it handles competently and even with a smidgen of fun, unless you want to push it. Going to the extremes makes it feel like it’s going to lose its grip. The sure-footedness offered from much of the electric competition seems to be missing here.

It’s exacerbated on wet roads, and I’ve noted a few other Nissans also can pose a problem when it’s soggy out, namely the Frontier and the Pathfinder.

Friends and stuff: The rear seat is comfortable, with good legroom and headroom. Foot room is limited by the low front seats.

The armrest slides back and forth at the push of a button, which can help the person in the middle seat. This seems like a nice touch until I realized the phone charger ports for the front occupants are near the floor underneath the armrest. It’s a tough setup to reach, and even the easygoing Mrs. Passenger Seat complained about it.

Cargo space is 22.8 cubic feet in the back and 59.7 with the rear seat folded.

Play some tunes: The infotainment system employs a big knob for volume and the sizable 12.3-inch touchscreen for everything else. The only snag was locating the equalizer controls when in Apple CarPlay — the home button brings up a screen that includes a teeny, tiny little cog in the upper right. I had the vehicle for four days before I found it.

But once I dialed that in, the results were pleasing. The Bose Premium Audio with 10 speakers did a fine job reproducing my favorite songs, about an A-.

Keeping warm and cool: The controls are on built into the wood/fake wood trim underneath the touchscreen — toggles for temperature and fan. They require a solid push.

Where it’s built: Tochigi, Japan

How it’s built: Consumer Reports is not yet offering a guess on the Ariya’s reliability. The Leaf, Nissan’s other EV, has a predicted reliability of 3 out of 5.

In the end: The Ariya could be a contender but some real quirks with the pedals, braking, and handling means far better choices are available.

Next week: More EV testing, and more Nissan, as we try out the Leaf.