HYBRID CROSSOVERS

The Qashqai was the original crossover... these days it's been leapfrogged in the pecking order. Can a Dacia beat the OG?

- WORDS GREG POTTS

If space equals luxury, the new Dacia Bigster should really be up against the recently updated Rolls-Royce Cullinan on these pages. The same is often said for time, and Romania’s latest export would give you plenty of that back too, because while its 0-62mph sprint only just sneaks under the 10 second mark, the Bigster's complex 153bhp hybrid powertrain sips away at fuel to allow for a range of over 650 miles on a single tank. You lose more time in fuel stations than you do accelerating...

Nissan’s engineers also claim that ‘no compromise’ was made in the development of its new, third generation e-Power hybrid system seen here in the Qashqai. We're told that the whole platform was engineered with this setup in mind, so where rivals stick a battery under the boot floor (eating into bootspace) or under the rear seats (limiting the size of the fuel tank), the Qashqai’s is under its front seats to allow for a 55 litre tank and a theoretical range of over 740 miles. In real world driving it’s probably more like 630 miles, so slightly less rangey than the Bigster but still mighty impressive. Still need that diesel?

Oh, and the Qashqai’s bootspace is advertised as 455 litres, which means it’s more roomy than most hatchbacks, but ultimately smaller than the Cullinan. The Dacia gets far more luggage space than the Roller. We can hear them quaking in their leather soled boots down in Goodwood.

The Qashqai was the car that kickstarted the crossover craze on these shores though, and it’s still designed, engineered and built in Britain. However, while it remains a massive seller (it was third on the list of new cars shifted in the UK in 2024), we would argue that it has been overtaken by a number of copycat rivals. Will that be the case with the Bigster, too?