Nissan e-NV200 Evalia 7S 2018 first drive

The Nissan e-NV200 Evalia 7S is Nissan’s other passenger-car EV. Didn’t know they had a second one? That may be because this one’s based on a commercial vehicle: it’s a seven-seat MPV based on the e-NV200 electric van. But whether you knew of it or not, it’s just had an upgrade timed to coincide with the launch of the third-generation Leaf.

At just over 4.5 metres in length and 1.8 metres tall, the Evalia is ostensibly an electrically powered take on the commercial-convert people-mover: so a zero-emissions alternative to a Ford Grand Tourneo Connect or Citroen Berlingo. It hasn’t been through a renewal process as thorough as the Nissan Leaf’s, so its 107bhp electric motor, its chassis and its suspension stay more or less as they were.

But the big news is the inclusion of a new 40kWh drive battery coming in to replace the old 24kWh one, but which is no larger than the old one and therefore fits into the same space as the old one did. The difference that makes is a 60% improvement in battery range, which rises to 174 miles on the outgoing ‘NEDC’ test cycle or 125 miles by the new ‘WLTP combined’ test measure.

The Evalia’s smoothed-over panels and large, rounded features make it look a bit like it belongs in an animated movie by Pixar; particularly so in the white of our test car. ‘Quirky-looking’ might be how you’d describe it if it were yours. But then, lucky for Nissan, this isn’t a part of the new car market where buyers are sensitive to such things.

Being van-derived and based on a product almost a decade old, the Evalia has a cabin that’s at once basic and quite cheap-feeling; which is no great criticism, though, since it’s just the way cars like this are. You get a digital instrument screen which looks small and a bit antiquated by the standards of the latest passenger car digital instrument displays, though it’s easy enough to read.

Up front you sit in a driving position that feels slightly compromised, being very upright and positioning you close to the pedals but also at a distance from the steeply raked steering wheel. You feel, frankly, like you’re driving something in which the available loading length behind your seat is more important than the passenger’s comfort in front of it. Which, of course, is entirely true. Trouble is, other comparable cars don’t make that commercial vehicle link plain in quite the same way.

In the Evalia version, though, instead of a loadbay behind the driver there are three roomy second-row seats accessed via sliding side doors – and behind them, two third-row chairs that fold and stow upwards against the sides of the boot when not in use. The third-row seats are a bit fiddly to manhandle and don’t offer particularly generous legroom, but they’re more spacious than in some so-called seven-seaters – and even when in place, they leave enough space for a decent haul of bags and small cases in the boot. With all the seats folded meanwhile, Nissan states that you can squeeze in three full-sized mountain bikes having left their front wheels attached, and longer stuff too (kayaks, ballistic missiles, railway locomotives and the like, at a guess) if you fold the front passenger seat down as well. This is certainly a car with the potential to move both people and cargo in plentiful supply.