Is minimalism the new hallmark of electric vehicles? We were in the Ariya from Nissan, and from the first time you take a seat, you notice the clean lines and the sober design of the dashboard. Buttons and rotary knobs are mainly found on the steering wheel, everything else is done by the finger on the 12.3-inch diagonal on-board monitor. The cockpit display is also digital, both monitors are connected to each other, and there is a wide, black border in the middle. There's a rotary knob below the display for adjusting the audio volume, and the air conditioning is operated with capacitive buttons on the dashboard, which are thankfully illuminated, but don't please with a spongy haptic feedback.

Michael Spehr

Editor in the "Technology and Engine" department.

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We checked the infotainment and wanted to know how it performs in terms of charging planning. In the Ariya, almost everything is on board as standard. But for the head-up display, at least the "Evolve Pack" equipment variant must be selected. The on-board system has a substructure from Google and comes with Tomtom traffic information, according to the price list. However, they could not be activated in our vehicle. Amazon's lady Alexa is also part of the standard equipment.

The on-board monitor permanently shows six buttons on the left side for quick access to the submenus. The main menu can also be customized, widgets can be added, and overall the system is easy to use. Interestingly, all the car's settings can only be made using the steering wheel buttons and the cockpit display.

The voice recognition detects the location and street of the navigation destination nimbly and usually precisely, it works hybrid, says Nissan. Charging planning for electric driving is only available to a limited extent. The system gives a hint for destinations beyond the battery range and asks if you want to look for charging stations. Then a fast charging station will be displayed, which is still accessible. Many details are missing: you can't see what calculated battery level you arrive with, there is no setting for the minimum remaining battery level and only the nearest charging station is suggested, but no list of charging points for long distances. It is also not clear during arrival whether the charging station is free. Systems from other manufacturers are much more powerful here.

Restrained communication of charging data

However, you can get along well in everyday life if you manually search for charging points at the location or near your destination. A filter can also be set here to display only fast charging points. When it comes to AC charging stations, the Google database is bad: The three of us were guided in the Bad Homburg city area – and found none. We discovered one after getting out and walking in the area. It was 200 meters from the position marked on the map.

Another shortcoming of the Nissan Ariya is its restrained communication of charging data. If the ignition is off during charging, you can only see from an LED that charging is taking place. Neither the current power consumption nor the level of the battery are displayed. To see the latter, you have to turn on the ignition. There is only an estimate of the charging time at the beginning of the charging process and this is not based on the current power consumption. So there is still room for improvement here.

Overall, we liked the Ariya with the small 63 kWh battery and front-wheel drive. With a restrained driving style, you get a consumption of about 20 kWh for 100 kilometers and thus a range of just over 300 kilometers. If you mainly drive in the city or on country roads, you can drive even more economically.