A long road trip is probably the best way to discover what a car is really like. Not by looking at its specifications, but by spending several hours inside it, living with it and finding out how it makes you feel when the destination is still hundreds of kilometers away.
That was the experience on Nissan’s recent e-POWER drive from Solaire North to Subic, Zambales, and Pangasinan, before heading back to Manila. We started the journey in the Nissan X-Trail e-POWER, which we drove for the first two days. For the return trip, we switched to the Kicks e-POWER. And the difference in personality was immediately apparent.
The X-Trail is the natural road-trip companion. After hours on the highway and provincial roads, its larger cabin, comfortable seats, and relaxed ride become increasingly appreciated. It has the space and refinement that make long-distance driving less tiring, whether you’re behind the wheel or simply enjoying the ride as a passenger.
The scenery also becomes part of the experience. Leaving Manila, passing through Subic and Zambales and eventually reaching Pangasinan, the drive gradually changes from urban traffic to open highways and quieter provincial roads. This is where the X-Trail feels most at home.
The e-POWER system adds to that relaxed experience. Its electric motor drives the wheels, while the gasoline engine generates electricity, giving you the smooth response of electric propulsion without requiring you to plug the vehicle in. But after a while, you stop thinking about the technology. You simply drive. And that’s perhaps the biggest compliment you can give it.
Then came the return journey in the Kicks e-POWER. The smaller Kicks immediately felt more at home in the city. It is easier to maneuver, easier to park and more natural to use in the stop-and-go rhythm of urban driving.
For short trips, daily errands and quick hops around town, the Kicks is more than enough. It is compact without feeling cramped, and its e-POWER system gives everyday driving a smoothness that suits the urban environment.
But as the kilometers accumulated on the way back to Manila, the difference between the two became clearer. The Kicks can certainly handle a long trip. It just doesn’t have the same relaxed, spacious feel of the X-Trail when the drive stretches into several hours.
And that, for me, is the real takeaway from driving them back-to-back. It isn’t really about choosing one over the other. They simply fit different lifestyles.
The Kicks e-POWER is the more natural choice for city living—short drives, daily commutes and quick weekend errands.
The X-Trail e-POWER, on the other hand, is the one you want when the road ahead is long, the family is coming along and the destination is somewhere beyond the city.
Both offer the same basic e-POWER idea: electric-motor driving without having to change your lifestyle around charging. But after a journey from Manila to Northern Luzon and back, one thing became clear. For the city, take the Kicks. For the long way out, take the X-Trail.
Sometimes, the best way to understand a car is simply to take it somewhere far away.
