Booking for the new Nissan X-Trail (facelift) is now open, so have you made your mind whether to bite? Both you and I know the score – for reasons that is not quite clear Nissan nowadays tend to be happy trailing others when it comes to product styling and specifications. Would the upcoming X-Trail – launch expected in April – be up to the task?

On the surface, it does have a lot more things in place. First, there is a hybrid variant – the 2.0L Hybrid that makes 144ps and 200Nm, plus another 41ps and 160Nm coming from the electric motor. Nissan claims a class-best fuel efficiency of 16.1km/L (6.2L/100km) based on the ECE R101 test. The gearbox is a CVT.

The other three variants available run of conventional petrol engines, with the variants: 2.5L 4WD, 2.0L 2WD Mid, and 2.0L 2WD. Like the 2.0 Hybrid, these three variants are also EEV (Energy Efficient Vehicles) certified.

A big improvement for the new X-Trail over the one it replaces come in the form of safety features that fall under Nissan Intelligent Mobility. Like mentioned before, they’re a bit late into the game here in Malaysia, but what Nissan is offering immediately takes the brand on par with the others. Also good is that Nissan Intelligent Mobility (and features such as Lane Departure Warning, Rear Cross Traffic Alert, and Intelligent Cruise Control are available in all variants except for the basic 2.0L 2WD variant. You can see it in the table below:

Estimated prices are as follows:

We’ll know much more by tomorrow afternoon after a special media preview of the facelifted Nissan X-Trail. So until then.