The much-hyped works-tuned high-performance SUV
Osaka Auto Messe (OAM) 2024 in February 2024: the highlight of the Nissan booth is undoubtedly the ARIYA NISMO, which made its world premiere at the Tokyo Auto Salon after its existence was suddenly revealed on 10 January via official SNS. We spoke to Mitsunori Morita, chief manager of Nissan’s Global Design Division, who has overall responsibility for the design of the latest NISMO road car, which is due to go on sale in June 2024.
“We have changed our approach from the previous NISMO road car”
The Ariya NISMO is the 11th model/19th NISMO road car in total and, by the unwritten rules of the past, has been given new, exclusive tuning that makes full use of electrification technology, including racing, in everything from power performance, handling, and the four-wheel drive system, making it the pinnacle of the new generation of BEVs. The driving surface has been updated to befit a sports model. So what about the design? This is the first NISMO road car to be a crossover vehicle, and although it has a slightly different worldview from previous models, it is …….
“Before working on the Ariya, we started with the GT-R and then the Skyline/Fairlady Z. We have made NISMO road cars from the sports line. Sports cars are an extension of motorsports and are easy to make because you just need to specialize in the performance direction. In contrast, the Ariya is a premium EV crossover, so we had a lot of trouble figuring out how we should make it look like NISMO. It was not just styling, but performance as well, and it took us a long time to work out the details.”
One of the key exterior features is the red bodyline, which has become an iconic feature of NISMO road cars. The non-sportscar Ariya has lines in the middle of the front and rear bumpers/finishers to express a different NISMO character.
“Simply put, we changed the meaning (manner) of the lines. The theme is two-sidedness, and the image is of someone who looks elegant/gentlemanly on the outside but is really a hot-blooded person or someone with unexpected qualities. The red line (this is one of the Ariya NISMO’s design keywords, which Nissan calls ‘Alteria (hidden) Magma’) expresses this inner strength that is not usually shown.”
The lines were placed higher than before to create the effect of oozing inner heat. Initially, they considered making it luminous, but in the end, they changed the color from conventional metallic red to a brighter solid red, which contrasts more strongly with the black. The lines themselves were also made thicker to emphasize the presence of the vehicle, to give it more momentum, and to make it appear more dynamic by making them thicker towards the rear.
The five parts that have been changed are the front bumper, rear diffuser, door finishers, front protector, and rear spoiler. The black area is the basic renewal area, but only the front section below the grille has been completely redesigned.
“The logic behind the design of the NISMO road cars, which we work on together with aerodynamic engineers, is the same for all cars. For the front, the basic idea is to divert the wind from the face to the sides. For this reason, the cross-sectional area of the air curtains on the left and right sides is also larger than on standard cars, so that the wind is channeled upwards without escaping. And the canards create a vertical airflow, which, together with the suction effect, reduces body lift.”
The difficulty is that the latest cars have a lot of advanced equipment, with multiple sensors, sonar, etc. installed in the bumper, and if the installation position or angle is changed, the safety design has to be reviewed. This means that the development costs are many times higher, so the NISMO and other modifications to the shape must meet these requirements while also providing good looks and performance, which is a constant struggle.
“Overall, I can say that while respecting the sculptural beauty originally possessed by the Ariya, the black function part adds mechanically optimized shaping for performance. The contrast between the two is expressed in a way that is uniquely NISMO.”
Overall, the front has a large air splitter and the door finishers are 40 mm lower and 35 mm wider laterally than the standard car to generate downforce. The rear is as low to the ground as possible and as long back as possible, based on cutting the wind at a greater distance. The overhangs are also set slightly longer.
All of this is put together in a stable design to visually lower the center of gravity while increasing aerodynamic performance. Therefore, if the red line is placed at the bottom, the taller Ariya would appear taller. The reason for placing it in the middle is partly to reduce this impression.
“We are also particular about the interior!”
The Ariya NISMO’s exclusive rear spoiler is set to pick up air flowing in from the standard car’s roof spoiler, which has a hole in the center to reduce drag (plus from the body sides), to provide more downforce.
“Initially, it was larger, but the power gate actuator on the reference car couldn’t lift it to the top, so we had to redo it. We had to cut up the design that covered the area near the combination lamps and make the whole thing more compact, but when we looked at the finished design, we saw a beauty that had been worked out, and we thought this is the way to go.”
The wheels were jointly developed with ENKEI and the image is the iron core of the motor. The combination design, with a flat outer circumference and slender 2×5 spokes in the center, was the result of a performance study that focused on reducing air resistance, exhausting heat and downforce, and efficiently receiving the wheel’s rotational torque. The rim width is 0.5J wider than the standard model, but ENKEI’s unique MAT process has been used to keep the weight almost the same, and the design is designed to bring out the performance of the Ariya NISMO.
The exterior design of the Ariya NISMO combines a powerful form with a refinement that the development team has sharpened to its limits. The sculptural beauty of the standard car is beautifully sublimated into a premium sporty atmosphere.
The basic interior construction, like the exterior, had the same problems as described at the beginning of the development process. However, when the Aura boldly renewed the interior, including the dashboard area, and incorporated a mature (mellow) sports car taste, a different worldview from the original was produced, and this experience has been used as the basis for the current version.
Based on the black interior of the reference model, black Alcantara leather is used on the dashboard and upper part of the door trim, similar to the GT-R NISMO. The wood finishers are also black, and other decorations are kept to a minimum to create a high-quality black-toned space. The NISMO road car promises to add red accents to this, but this time a new design keyword, ‘Alteria Magma’, has also been added.
Specifically, the illumination under the center console and on the left and right door trim has been changed from the soft white of the standard car to a spicy red, and the exclusive sports seats with red peeking out from the suede perforations express the “hot magma” (inner strength) hidden inside. However, the color temperature of the door trim illumination has been repeatedly adjusted, and the two stitches running along the Alcantara section are red only on the upper side (grey on the lower side) to reduce gaudiness, creating a mature interior suitable for a flagship.
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Although the Ariya NISMO follows in the footsteps of previous NISMO road cars, it is not a real sports design reminiscent of racing cars, but rather the first of a new breed of premium NISMO road cars. It is clear that this strategy is aimed at the coming age of full-fledged electrification, but if this style is recognized, any car can be a NISMO road car. In this sense, the success or failure of the Ariya NISMO is likely to have a major impact on future trends.
translated by DeepL