Here’s Nissan’s next electric crossover, on sale in 2021 for $40,000

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  This is the Nissan Ariya, a new electric crossover which goes on sale later next year. [credit: Nissan ]

A charismatic CEO with a penchant for the dramatic, and a bold plan to build the world's first mass-market electric vehicle. You probably think I'm talking about Tesla, but years before the Model S turned a wheel, Nissan tried to conquer that ground with its Leaf battery EV. OK, that CEO is gone now, and the Leaf failed to sell in quite the volume Nissan hoped. But next year, the Japanese automaker gets a second bite at the cherry with the Ariya, a new BEV that was revealed to the world on Wednesday morning in Japan.

You might be experiencing a touch of déjà vu—that's perfectly normal, because a thinly veiled concept of the Ariya was shown off at last year's Tokyo auto show and this year's CES, where some lucky ducks even got to drive it. (That will teach me to stay home, I guess.) It's roughly the same size and shape as the company's best-selling Rogue crossover, and Nissan hopes that the Ariya follows in that car's footsteps with regards to the sales chart—at the reveal, its new CEO Ashwani Gupta said that "the company expects sales of its EVs and e-POWER electrified models to be more than 1 million units a year by the end of fiscal 2023. The Ariya will play a significant role in attaining that goal." (Mark your calendars for the end of March 2023 to see if that pans out.)

On the outside, it's roughly the same size and shape as the best-selling Rogue crossover. On the inside, it's all tasteful minimalism, which Nissan's press materials describe as "akin to a sleek cafe lounge on a starship," and I include that not to mock whoever wrote that because I think they might be on to something. As with Volkswagen Group's forthcoming MEB-based electric crossovers, the Ariya makes full use of the BEV skateboard layout to maximize cabin space atop the battery pack. With the car powered off, it appears to mimic the button-free aesthetic of the Model 3, complete with large touchscreen infotainment system. But turn the Ariya on and backlit haptic controls appear, set in the black wooden dash.

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