- Nissan believes hybrids will become its most popular powertrain in the U.S. by 2030.
- Earlier this month, Nissan unveiled the new e-Power Rogue Hybrid.
- An e-Power hybrid version of the Kicks and a V6 hybrid Xterra are on the cards.
Fresh off revealing the new Rogue Hybrid in the U.S., Nissan says it has already killed off the Mitsubishi Outlander-based Rogue Plug-In Hybrid. Furthermore, Nissan is going all-in on traditional hybrid powertrains, and it expects them to become the core of its portfolio in North America.
Generous state and federal incentives led many to believe the battery-electric vehicles would define American roads over the coming decade, but after the Trump administration scrapped the $7,500 EV tax credit, the market has shifted. Once again, hybrids are in high demand. Nissan has been slow to adopt hybrids, especially compared to rivals like Toyota and Hyundai, but the 2027 Nissan Rogue Hybrid aims to fix this.
Read: 2027 Nissan Rogue Hybrid Wants To Beat The Toyota RAV4 With A $35,490 Starting Price
For the first time, Nissan e-Power self-charging hybrid technology is available in the US after years of being available in international markets. In the case of the Rogue, it uses a 1.5-liter turbocharged three-cylinder engine acting as a generator for a 1.67 kWh lithium-ion battery pack and two electric motors, producing 225 hp.
Nissan Kills Rogue PHEV
Nissan plans to start building this model in the U.S. in 2028 and will also launch a hybrid e-Power version of the Kicks at roughly the same time. What does this mean for the Rogue Plug-In Hybrid, announced in late 2025? Speaking with Auto News, Nissan Americas chairman Christian Meunier said it’s dead.
The company’s half-hearted attempt at a plug-in hybrid SUV, essentially just a rebadged version of the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, always seemed lazy and underdone. According to Meunier, Nissan has sold only half of the 3,000 vehicles it commissioned for the US and expects to sell the rest of them by the end of the year.
Nissan Rogue Plug-In Hybrid
“The volume of plug-in hybrid in the U.S. has collapsed down to almost zero,” he revealed. “It’s not a strategic model for us. It was more a bridge to e-power hybrid. So production is stopped.”
Nissan believes hybrids will become its “primary powertrain” in North America and Latin America by 2030. In addition to adding its small-capacity e-Power system to several models, the brand has confirmed work on a hybrid V6.
This new engine is tipped to premiere in the revived Xterra, which was confirmed earlier this year. Serving as a rival to the Ford Bronco, it will be based on a body-on-frame platform that’ll be used by four other new-generation trucks to be built in the U.S.
