Nimble and economical in and out of the city: The Nissan Juke hybrid doesn’t force you to change anything and still manages to save. But not for free – Garáž.cz

“From now on, only electric,” proclaims Nissan, promising that all newly introduced cars in Europe will now be electric only. You just can’t stop progress. But if you want to adapt to its pace, you can do it slowly and painlessly – for example behind the wheel of the hybrid version of the Juke model.

Nissan actually offers all its key models – Juke, Qashqai and X-Trail – with a hybrid drive, but the technology of the smaller crossover is quite different from its larger siblings. While both SUVs are driven only by an electric motor and the internal combustion engine functions only as an energy generator, the wheels of the Juke model can be turned directly by both the energy of electrons and burnt gasoline.

The technology is the same as that of Renault (Clio and Captur) – the economical 16-litre petrol engine is linked to the electric motor via a multimodal transmission (developed with the help of F1 experts and equipped with 150 patents) with four speeds for the combustion engine and two speeds for the electric motor (matching both drives and smooth shifting is provided by a strengthened stator-generator).

It sounds complicated, but you won’t care behind the wheel, because the Juke Hybrid drives like a normal car with an automatic transmission. You will definitely notice that it is much quieter and has relatively quick starts – this is because it always starts primarily on electricity (up to a speed of 55 km/h) and spends up to 80% of the driving time in the city in electric mode. You can enhance the impression of driving in an electric car by turning on the e-Pedal, i.e. driving with one pedal that brings more efficient recuperation (braking after releasing the gas pedal is provided by an electric motor generating electricity).

You also have a combined 140bhp at your command, making the hybrid Juke the most powerful and fastest version (the three-litre produces 26bhp less and is therefore 0.6 seconds slower to 100km/h). But to squeeze all the power out of him, you have to grab him by the neck. And that’s when the otherwise quiet engine of the Juku will be heard – precisely because it only has four qualts available instead of the usual six. When going up a big hill, overtaking or merging into a faster lane, it’s usually louder for just a few seconds and then quiets down again, but at 130 km/h on the motorway you may already know a little more about it than you’d like.

Highway movements are not too good for its consumption, which slowly rises to somewhere around six liters. When moving around the districts and being treated decently, it will repay you with a consumption of around five litres. In the city, thanks to more frequent recuperation, you can easily push it down to the level of a great four liters.

This somehow indicates the purposes for which the hybrid Juke is intended – it will demonstrate its qualities best when moving on city streets and during suburban commuting. You should also see it more as a second car for the family (or the first for childless couples), because there is absolutely no extra space on the back seats and the battery of the hybrid drive takes a bite out of the trunk of 68 liters of its volume (however, it still has a solid 354 liters). But if you need exactly such a car, the hybrid Nissan Juke will make you very happy.

Just be prepared to pay extra for it – especially since Nissan is offering petrol versions in a discounted anniversary edition celebrating the Japanese brand’s 90 years (running until the end of November). You can buy a Juke 1.0 DIG-T in the second Acenta trim for just 499,990 CZK with a manual transmission and 539,990 CZK with an automatic transmission. The hybrid Juke in the higher N-Connect equipment (which is the basis for the HEV) costs an official 729,000 CZK, which is currently 160,000 more than the discounted petrol with an automatic. And the economical hybrid drive doesn’t just save you that much…