While the luxury minivan market is mostly dominated by the Toyota Alphard/Vellfire twins, the Toyota duo arenât alone as there is one notable competitor from its once-dominant rival â the Nissan Elgrand.
The often overlooked/forgotten rival to Toyotaâs immensely popular breadboxes on wheels, the Nissan Elgrand in its current generation has been on sale for 13 years. By comparison, the current third-generation AH30 Alphard was introduced 8 years ago and a new generation is expected to be launched this year.
With the upcoming Alphard due to be introduced as early as the middle of the year, Best Car Web has also speculated that Nissan could be finally introducing an all-new Elgrand in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Itâs all speculation now but the Elgrand is still soldiering on in its current form for 13 years with a couple of facelifts in 2014 and 2020. Still, the Elgrand paled in sales compared to the Alphard as it was never charted among the 50 best-selling cars in Japan for the past 4 years. In 2022, the Alphard was ranked the countryâs tenth best-selling car.
The Elgrand was one of the first Japanese luxury minivans on sale and during its peak, the OG luxury breadbox sold an average of 10,000 units a month. However, following the introduction of the Toyota Alphard, its sales slipped dramatically.
To bring some much-needed revival to the Elgrand, Best Car Web speculated that it will be powered by a 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol-hybrid engine that is also found in the fourth-gen T33 Nissan X-Trail.
On the Japanese-spec X-Trail, the 3-cylinder KR15DDT unit combines variable compression technology with turbocharging. The engine alone makes 144 PS and 250 Nm which is paired with up to 2 electric motors depending on the drive type.
Being a hybrid, the 2WD variants come with an electric motor on the front axle that makes 204 PS/330 Nm while 4WD variants have an additional electric motor on the rear axle that makes 136 PS/195 Nm.
Itâs worth noting that the Nissan e-Power hybrid power system is a series hybrid and works differently from the conventional petrol-hybrid vehicles (parallel hybrid) in that the engine works as a generator to recharge the battery pack.
But back to the speculated specs of the all-new Elgrand and the Japanese automotive publication expected that it could sit on the X-Trailâs CMF-CD platform as well as utilise the e-4ORCE 4WD system like the X-Trail.
In terms of design, Best Car Web provided a few renders which could likely follow the design set forth by the all-new Serena and the Sakura EV. Weâre digging the more elegant looks on the Elgrandâs render than what they speculated the next-gen Alphard could look like.
The seating layout is likely to be carried over from the current Elgrand which offers either 8 seats or 7 seats. Being the flagship MPV, itâs quite likely that the all-new Elgrand would be fitted with ProPilot 2.0 ADAS which is on the highest-spec Serena Luxion variant.
The latest ProPilot 2.0 is enhanced with Collision Avoidance Steering Assist, ProPilot Parking, and ProPilot Remote Parking beside the usual safety features that are offered in an ADAS suite.
Would all these enhancements and a brand-new look keep the Elgrand relevant and bring it back to the glory days or will these turn out to be too little too late?
Traded advertising for a career that fits his passion for cars. Enjoys spotting cars during his free time and has a soft spot for Japanese Kei cars but drives a thirsty manual sedan.
