The Nissan N7 is the latest Japanese EV to be based on a Chinese model.
Nissan may be going through a very tough time globally, but that doesn’t mean that they’re giving up. The Chinese market has long been a lucrative one for many carmakers, Nissan included. That’s why they’re doing what the Chinese market wants and delivering an all-electric sedan the Nissan N7. Except, it doesn’t seem to us to be a pure Nissan product. We’ll explain.
Nissan has been one of the few mainstream passenger car brands to embrace the zero emissions transition from an early stage. They’ve had the LEAF available for 2 generations and have set-up battery and powertrain technologies far ahead of maany competitors. The thing is, this N7 is part of Nissan’s medium-term plan to accelerate sales in China and they’re working with Dongfeng to create cars like the N7, which indicates to us that it will not be leaning on Nissan’s EV technology, but rather EV tech from Chinese suppliers.
In fact, this Nissan N7 bears some similarities to the Dongfeng eπ 007 sedan which was shown back in February of this year. The wheelbase of both electric sedans are exactly the same at 2915mm, indicating that both cars might be sharing the same EV skateboard platform, though the press release claims that it sits on a ‘new’ Dongfeng Nissan modular architecture.
The ‘top hat’ of the vehicle looks to be completely unique as the Nissan N7 has a clamshell style hood and traditional swing out doors instead of the gull wing doors seen on the Dongfeng car. The Nissan also has a lightbar daytime running light across the front the vehicle and plenty of other design aspect that help to distinguish it from the Dongfeng eπ 007 sedan.
Interestingly, this is not the first time a legacy Japanese car brand is leaning on Chinese engineering to produce a vehicle. Toyota has the bZ3 with BYD tech, Honda has the twin e:NS1 and e:NP1 cars made by Dongfeng and GAC. Mazda has the EZ-6 with Changan and now Nissan has this.
The Nissan N7 will go on sale in the first half of 2025. It will feature an infotainment system powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8259P processor. Dimensions are:
- 4930mm in length
- 1895mm in width
- 1487mm in height
- 2915mm wheelbase
