This single picture is a teaser of what will be the new Nissan X-Trail, or Rogue in the US, which will make its debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show next month. It shows a much curvier design than X-Trails of old, with a stylish strip of LED DRLs. Nissan says it “push the envelope of CUV (crossover utility vehicle) design.”
Thankfully this isn’t the only picture we have of the new vehicle, as we’ve spotted a disguised test car in the USA’s Death Valley earlier this year. Ahead of that, patent drawings filed by Nissan gave us clear view of the new X-Trail, which was already officially previewed by the Hi-Cross Concept shown in Geneva 2012.
We’ll have to wait till the official reveal to find out the new model’s choice of powertrains, but a guess of either a 2.0 or 2.5 litre four-cylinder engine paired to Nissan’s own CVT transmission would be a fairly safe bet. Also, expect it to be bigger yet lighter than before, with a choice of front- or all-wheel drive.
This new model has big shoes to fill, as it’s set to replace the current X-Trail, the Rogue in the US, as well as the Qashqai+2 in Europe (the five-seat Qashqai will get its own replacement). It’s also the first model to benefit from Renault-Nissan Alliance’s new Common Module Family (CMF) shared-vehicle architecture.
