Nissan’s X-Trail is one of the company’s global success stories, and in the medium SUV class there are few better.

It pairs a 106kW/250Nm three-cylinder petrol engine with electric motors at the front and rear producing 150/100kW. Official fuel consumption is 6.1l/100km; emissions are 139g/km. In addition to the petrol engine, e-POWER also uses regenerative braking to help keep the battery topped up.

Importantly, in the midst of the current Fuel War, it can run on 91 octane fuel, though 95 is recommended.

We saw 6.5l/100km without trying, so the official figure would be easy to hit.

While the Leaf, the soft-road SUV-styled Juke and the stylish but locally ignored Ariya EV SUV are apparently on the way out, the X-Trail is a global success for the brand, with 10,000,000 sold worldwide.

Overseas, there’s a next generation X-Trail doing the rounds of auto shows, and the coming refresh of the ePower hybrid system is expected to be a further huge leap forward. In the meantime, the 2026-spec X-Trail continues in the tradition of the recent generations as a road-oriented SUV suited to everything most families need of such a vehicle.

There’s still a petrol engine onboard, but it only powers the battery, electric motors driving the vehicle. Unlike traditional hybrids, the 1.5-litre engine acts as a generator for the 2.1kWh battery, producing strong performance, especially with the e-4ORCE all-wheel-drive system. That means massive torque is available from a standing start, far more than any petrol or diesel vehicle can muster. A further advantage of this system is that it’s not a plug-in, which means no additional RUC charges to pay.

There’s a base FWD version, but the AWD version is definitely the one to go for, with an extra 100kW e-motor on the rear axle for four-wheel drive (or e-4ORCE, as Nissan calls it). The onboard computers tell the car where to direct power (and torque), and one of the scrollable info screens displays this in real-time.

There are five selectable drive modes designed to cope with offroad conditions.

The cabin is a major strength, featuring high-quality materials and user-friendly tech.

With a landscape format 12.3-inch info screen, an instrument cluster the same size and a 10.8-inch heads-up display, the X-Trail majors on communication to driver and passengers.

There’s a ten-speaker Bose sound system.

Apple Car Play and Android Auto are both wireless and there’s wireless phone charging – which is pretty much an industry-standard these days.

The rear doors open to an impressive 85-degrees, making access simple.

So how does it drive?

The X-Trail’s strong urban focus is apparent on the open road, where its 20-inch allow wheels and 255-45 Michelin tyres are well matched to the vehicle’s size.

In winding roads behind Hunua, the ride is smooth and supple whether on gravel or tarseal. On reverse-camber corners as we drove up to the water storage dams the info display showed drive mostly going to all four wheels as the transmission copes with loose surface pea gravel.

Though the X-Trail doesn’t have the commanding presence of larger SUVs and utes, it’s an easy drive in commuting traffic. On one occasion we dropped the daughter off to her work in Wiri, and completed the whole drive Papakura-Wiri and return on electric power. That proves the real-world effectiveness of hybrid drive systems, and of Nissan’s ePower in particular.

Being able to commute as an EV but having the petrol engine’s support to keep power available at all times really is the best of all possible worlds.

Add regenerative braking into the mix and it’s a car for all seasons.

The X-Trail has a massive ten year/300,000km warranty, the first such backup in New Zealand, and presents itself as a near-perfect everyday AWD SUV.