Announced in late October, the facelifted Nissan Ariya has been revealed at the ongoing Japan Mobility Show. The electric SUV receives a mildly revised design inspired by the new Leaf, along with some blink-and-you’ll-miss-them trim and tech upgrades.
For 2026, the Ariya ditches its grille-like black mask for a cleaner look but retains its quad LED projector headlights, now joined by a simple black bar. As is becoming commonplace on Nissan’s newer EVs, fang-like daytime running lights reach downwards from the main lamps to form a revamped V-motion front end.
Sadly, that’s about all the changes to the car’s looks, although the larger 20-inch five-spoke wheel option does get new ribbed aero inserts. It’s a good job, then, that the Ariya’s swooping design as futuristic as it is, because the car still looks fresh.
Similarly, the interior remains untouched, retaining its clean horizontal dashboard, novel power-sliding centre console and powered centre glove box, pebble-like gear selector and hidden touch-sensitive air-con controls. The neat two-tone white and pastel blue upholstery does appear to be new, however.
The car’s widescreen display panel remains, continuing to house twin 12.3-inch displays for instrumentation and infotainment. The big news here is the addition of built-in Google services such as the Google Assistant, Google Maps and the Play Store for apps. Also added is a vehicle-to-load (V2L) function.
No mechanical changes have been announced, although we could see some upgrades to help the Ariya match the new Leaf’s 604 km of range. As a refresher, the outgoing car is available in standard 218 PS (160 kW) trim with a 63 kWh battery delivering a range of up to 385 km, as well as a long range 242 PS (178 kW) version that can travel up to 504 km thanks to an 87 kWh battery. The e-4ORCE all-wheel-drive model doubles power to 394 PS (290 kW) but has a shorter 487 km range.
Nissan has at least confirmed that the Ariya will now come with retuned suspension to provide a more comfortable ride on Japanese roads. The facelift will go on sale later in the fiscal year ending March 31.
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