Nissan's family-favourite Qashqai is upgraded for 2024 - what's new?

• Qashqai facelift exterior updates includes new bold grille and headlight design 
• Assists and safety features have been sensibly updated as per drivers’ wishes 
• An electric Qashqai is coming but timings and prices have yet to be announced 

Nissan has decided the Qashqai – its extremely popular crossover SUV – needs a bit of refresh. And so it’s just unveiled the facelifted 2024 version.

The Qashqai was the UK’s second best-selling new car of 2023, shifting 42,321 units, and Britain’s most popular motor the year before. And with only the smaller Ford Puma ahead of it in sales last year, that means the Qashqai can lay claim to the title of Britain’s favourite family car.

The Qashqai can also be largely credited for starting the crossover SUV trend back in 2007 – a body shape that’s now everywhere thanks to buyers love of a combination of jacked-up ride height and practical space.

Now the updated Qashqai features a bolder exterior design, improved quality interior, revised safety assists and better connectivity thanks to built-in Google.

It’s also offered in a newly introduced N-Design grade for ‘enhanced visual appeal’.

The Nissan Qashqai – the car that can be credited with sparking the crossover craze – has been updated for 2024 with a fresh new look

The updated Qashqai has a bigger, bolder front grille in contrasting black high gloss 3D ‘comma’ shapes. Headlights have also been updated with this comma pattern

The rear remains largely unchanged, expect for the reshaped bumper and harmonised colour – either gloss black on the higher-grade versions or body coloured on the new N-Design grade

The biggest Qashqai change by far is to the exterior look.

While still immediately distinguishable as a Qashqai, it has been heavily revised with more dramatic angles.

The front has the most obvious change, with a bold black grille (much larger than the previous version) created by gloss three-dimensional comma-shaped elements.

Nissan says this has taken inspiration from the patterns of ancient Japanese armour scales.

This 3D-comma design continues down from the headlights to the number plate, for a sharper look, and the bumper has been reshaped and re-coloured.

The side profile on higher trims has a contracting black gloss finish on the body beneath the doors and wheel arches.

Three new colours have been added to the Qashqai’s palette: Pearl White, Pearl Black and Deep Ocean (blue/teal). Five of the colourways can be picked with a contrasting black roof.

A new N-Design grade has been introduced for drivers wanting ‘to be particularly bold’. Aesthetic touches unique to this trim include the lower body portion below the doors and body-coloured wheel arches. All-new 20” alloy wheels will also bring added road presence

The addition of the N-Design grade has been brought in for customers who like ‘to be particularly bold’.

Aesthetic touches unique to this trim include the lower body portion below the doors and body-coloured wheel arches. All-new 20-inch alloy wheels will also bring added road presence.

Nissan says the Qashqai’s lighting is now ‘seamlessly integrated with design’, and the daytime running lights have five small lenses that mimic the ‘commas’ of the grille.

The headlights are fitted with adaptive beam module that increases visibility in low-light conditions and fog.

The headlights and rear lights are now sequential – meaning the light moves in the direction you’re indicating – might turn out to be unpopular because a lot of people find them unnecessary and gimmicky

Potentially irritatingly for people who find this new car feature gimmicky, the headlights and rear lights (which remain unchanged except for a three-dimensional profile to the ‘super red’ brake lights) are now sequential. This means the indicator light moves in a wave in the direction you’re indicating.

Cabin wise, design remains largely the same except for improved materials: top trims (N-Design and Tekna+) have Alcantara across the cabin – from dash to knee pads – and the materials around the gear selector is now patterned.

The top spec Qashqai has black partially quilted premium leather seats, and synthetic leather is available on the penultimate spec if prefer a vegan option.

The set up inside the 2024 Qashqai is the same, expect for new driver dials that now change colour depending on what driving mode you’re in

The interior has had material improvements with Alcantara added across the cabins of the top trims, which go with partially quilted black leather seats

The interior update that will be most fun to kids especially is the introduction of ambient lighting. You can now choose from 64 colour options to make your cabin reflect your mood.

Sensibly, the digital dials – which now change colour in conjunction with the drive mode – have a minimal mode which shouldn’t be distracting for those behind the wheel.

Steering wheel buttons remain to control the main functions, and during the unveil Nissan confirmed ‘it’s looking for a measured approach [to reducing physical buttons] and will not be reducing physical buttons to zero’.

Nissan says it’s also aware that Euro NCAP (the safety body) is looking into the availability of buttons versus the use of distracting touch screens and the impact this has on safety.

Steering wheel buttons prevail – with Nissan not keen to jump on the buttonless band wagon. The brand is aware people like buttons and that there are safety concerns with how distraction touchscreen-only new cars can be

Bringing connectivity to the forefront of the driving experience, the new Qashqai is the first model to have Google in-built.

Your digital life will hit the road with you (for better or for worse) with Google offering everything from maps to your favourite locations, and reminders when you’ve forgotten to lock the car.

You do have to sign into your Google account to use it – which you can do through the touchscreen, steering wheel buttons or voice activation – so just don’t sign in if you want to disconnect from your Google reliance.

Google Play app store comes with, making it easy to download podcasts, music and audiobooks straight to the car if you so wish.

Ambient lighting is the mood feature of choice to be introduced, offering people 64 lighting options to choose from to set the scene inside the car

Considering Nissan pretty much coined the crossover segment, it’s safe to say it knows what it’s doing when it comes to driver assistance and safety technology.

The upgraded Qashqai now has a three-dimensional Around View Mirror (AVM). This was first introduced by Nissan way back in 2007, but now for 2025 it will show a birds-eye view of the car through four low-light cameras to make manoeuvring even easier.

A clever extra feature to the upgraded AVM is ‘hood view’.

This shows the driver the position of the front wheels as if you were looking from just behind them. Curbing your wheel in a tight multi-storey should become an expensive thing of the past.

Nissan has upgraded the Qashqai’s Around View Mirror (AVM) cleverly introducing useful features including a birds-eye view camera, a hood view where you can see where the front wheels are pointed and a 200-degree camera that helps you pull out at blind junctions

AVM also comes with ‘Parking Spot Location Memory’ which allows you to save frequent parking spots and the car will remember them and help you park there in future.

Even better for safety AVM has a 200-degree setting which helps you pull out a junction with limited visibility (like a T-Junction) thanks to the wide-angle camera that projects its view onto the central screen.

READ MORE: New car tech gimmicks we don’t really need: Seven features added to cars in recent years drivers never asked for…

Nissan has said the updated Qashqai was designed for ‘peace of mind and safety’ and the brand has clearly listened to its customers and thought through which safety features are helpful and which aren’t.

The driver assists have been upgraded in a smart way. The Autonomous Emergency Braking now activates the Emergency Stop Signal when you have to brake in the face of danger and the Lane Departure Prevention – that warning system that shoves you back in lane often in totally unneeded and alarming moments – can actually be switched off through Driver Assist Custom Mode.

The system will remember your preference once you’ve set it and not come on automatically every time if you chose for it not to.

The updated Qashqai will continue to use Nissan’s e-Power hybrid technology that was first introduced in 2022, and will retain the same mpg figures as the last model

Engine wise there’s nothing new as Nissan brought in ‘e-Power’ in just 2022, and the hybrid system remains unchanged in the updated Qashqai.

The hybrid uses a petrol engine to generate electricity which drives the wheels, making it one of the smoothest and most efficient systems available.

Miles per gallon figures remain the same too – ranging from 40.4 to 54.3mpg depending on spec.

Nissan is yet to confirm pricing but has said it has dropped the Visia trim level (currently £27,135), which was the entry spec for the existing car.

This is likely to mean a rise in the Qashqai’s starting price when first deliveries arrive this summer, which should ring in around £30,000.

Read more