2026 Nissan Qashqai MY26.5 for Australia: N-Design Axed, Adaptive Headlights Gone, Prices Reported Up $210

Image credit: Nissan Australia. Qashqai e-POWER shown.

Nissan Australia has quietly moved the Qashqai to a MY26.5 specification, and quietly is the right word. There is no press release for it on Nissan's Australian newsroom. What there is, if you go looking, is a new spec sheet on the Qashqai page marked "Updated July 2026", a prices page that lists three grades where there used to be four, and a MY26 spec sheet from February still sitting on Nissan's file server. Put the two sheets side by side and the story tells itself: the N-Design flagship is gone, the remaining grades have given up equipment, and the main gain is a bigger instrument screen on the entry car.

Australian outlets including CarExpert and Cars24 have reported the update as a $210 price rise on every remaining grade, and CarExpert reports that Nissan Australia put the rise down mostly to production and logistics pressures. Nissan has not put those list prices on its own public pages, so we treat them as reported. What follows is what the manufacturer's documents actually show, and what it means if a Qashqai is on your list.

Pricing

There is one powertrain, so one group. The first column is what Nissan itself published for MY26 in January and again in May. The second is the MY26.5 list price as reported. The third is the figure Nissan's own website quotes today.

Nissan describes its MSRP figures as excluding premium paint, statutory charges and other on-road costs. Its drive-away figures include 12 months' registration and CTP, estimated dealer delivery and stamp duty, and Nissan says they are indicative only and vary by location. We read the drive-away prices from Nissan's site on 1 October 2026 for a Sydney 2000 postcode; a Melbourne postcode (3012) came back a few hundred dollars higher on each grade. Premium and two-tone paint cost extra on top of all of it.

On its own, $210 is a rounding error on a $50,000 car. The reason it matters is what it bought, which on the evidence of Nissan's own spec sheets is less car.

What Changed, Grade by Grade

This is a straight comparison of Nissan Australia's MY26 spec sheet (updated February 2026) and its MY26.5 spec sheet (updated July 2026). We have only listed items where the sheets clearly differ for that grade.

Platinum paint, offered on the MY26 ST-L, Ti and Ti-L, is no longer in the colour list. A few smaller items also disappear from the MY26.5 sheet without a replacement line, including the chrome side window finisher, the chrome front and rear finishers and the interior chrome door handles. A spec sheet leaving a line out is not always the same as the part leaving the car (Nissan's own prices page still lists the chrome side window finisher on all three grades), so check those on a showroom vehicle if they matter to you. The items in the table above are ones where the sheet names a lesser replacement or clearly moves a feature to a different grade.

The headlights are the one to notice

Most of that list is trim. The headlights are not. On the MY26 sheet, the Ti, Ti-L and N-Design had Automatic LED headlights with Adaptive Driving Beam, plus an auto levelling system, while the ST-L made do with High Beam Assist. On the MY26.5 sheet, all three grades list Automatic LED headlights with High Beam Assist and nothing more. High Beam Assist flicks the whole high beam on and off. An adaptive system shades the part of the beam that would dazzle another driver and keeps the rest lit, which is a real difference on a dark country road. If you do a lot of night driving outside the city, that is the change on this list that you would actually notice, and it now applies to a Ti-L reported at $53,850.

The ST-L: better screen, fewer conveniences

The entry car is the only grade with a clear gain. The 7-inch driver display is replaced by the same 12.3-inch digital cluster the other grades use, and there is now a rear-seat armrest with two cupholders. Against that, the wireless charging pad goes, the driver's power lumbar becomes a manual adjuster and the passenger seat drops from six-way to four-way. It is a trade most people could live with, but it is a trade, not an upgrade, and it happened alongside a reported price rise.

The Ti takes the biggest hit

The middle grade loses the most: the adaptive headlights, both sets of dynamic indicators, the signature tail lights, the auto-dimming frameless mirror and the leather-accented wheel. It keeps its main selling points: ProPILOT with lane keeping, heated front seats and steering wheel, the electric driver's seat with memory, wireless charging and ambient lighting. It also keeps an 18-inch alloy spare wheel, which the Ti-L does not have. The Ti-L runs a tyre repair kit, as it did on the MY26 sheet, so that is not new, but it is worth knowing if you drive long distances.

The ST-L Now Has an X-Trail Problem

Here is the comparison that matters more than any line on the spec sheet. On 30 July 2026, Nissan Australia added front-wheel drive e-POWER versions of the X-Trail, and priced the X-Trail ST-L 2WD e-POWER at $45,990 MSRP before on-road costs. On the reported MY26.5 price, the Qashqai ST-L e-POWER is $45,850. That is a gap of $140 between Nissan's small SUV and its mid-size one, in the same grade, with the same badge on the powertrain.

The Qashqai still has arguments. It is the more efficient car on paper, at 4.1L/100km combined against Nissan's 5.4L/100km for the 2WD X-Trail e-POWER, and at 4,425mm long it is an easier fit in a tight garage or a city car park. But if what you want is room, the X-Trail is the obvious cross-shop, and a buyer walking into a Nissan dealer with $46,000 in mind now has a genuinely awkward choice to make. We cover the new X-Trail range in our X-Trail 2WD e-POWER story.

What Did Not Change

The drivetrain is the same next-generation e-POWER system Nissan launched for MY26. The wheels are driven only by an electric motor rated at 140kW and 311Nm, and a 1.5-litre turbocharged three-cylinder petrol engine runs as a generator. There is no plug. Nissan quotes 4.1L/100km combined and 92g/km CO2 on the ADR 81/02 test, a 55-litre tank, and a calculated range of up to 1,341km from that tank. One small change: the MY26 sheet printed a 151kW Sport mode figure next to the 140kW rating, and the MY26.5 sheet no longer prints it. Nissan has not said whether anything behind that changed.

The exterior dimensions and the kerb weights of the three remaining grades are the same on both sheets. The MY26.5 sheet lists the boot at 404 litres in the ST-L and Ti and 452 litres in the Ti-L with its luggage board, rising to 1,328 and 1,376 litres with the rear seats folded. (The February MY26 sheet printed 504 and 1,440 litres for the ST-L, and Nissan has not explained the difference.) Kerb weights are 1,676kg, 1,697kg and 1,701kg across the three grades.

On safety, ANCAP lists the current Qashqai, all variants built from November 2025 onwards, at four stars with a 2025 rating year. Its scores are 78 per cent for adult occupants, 91 per cent for children, 68 per cent for vulnerable road users and 62 per cent for safety assist. The previous version, built from June 2022 to October 2025, carried five stars under ANCAP's 2021 rating. ANCAP's test criteria have been tightened since then, so the two ratings are not a like-for-like comparison, but the difference is worth knowing if you are comparing a new Qashqai with a late used one. None of the equipment removed for MY26.5 is listed in the safety section of Nissan's sheet: AEB with junction assist, blind spot warning, rear cross traffic alert, the far-side airbag and the 3D around view monitor are standard on all three grades on both sheets.

Towing, load and tax

Nissan lists the Qashqai e-POWER at 750kg braked and 750kg unbraked. That covers a box trailer or a small garden trailer, not a camper. The spec sheet puts gross vehicle mass at 2,180kg, so taking away the kerb weights leaves roughly 479kg to 504kg for people, luggage and towball load, depending on grade. Five adults and a full boot will use most of that. If you are planning to tow anything, our TowingSorted planner will show where the limits fall before you buy the trailer.

On tax, the Qashqai is simple. As general information for the 2026-27 financial year: at a reported $53,850 for the top grade it is nowhere near the $80,809 luxury car tax threshold that applies to it (its 4.1L/100km is above the 3.5L/100km cut-off for the higher fuel-efficient threshold, but that makes no difference at this price). And because it cannot be plugged in, it has never qualified for the fringe benefits tax exemption for electric cars on a novated lease. If a novated lease is how you plan to pay, a Qashqai is taxed like any petrol car.

Against the Other Small Hybrid SUVs

The Qashqai is not in the comparison below. Our listings for it still carry the earlier model year's figures and are being updated to the MY26.5 specification, so rather than show you numbers that contradict this page, we have left it out. What is in it are the hybrid small SUVs a Qashqai shopper is most likely to be pricing, each with a list price we have checked against the manufacturer. Pick any two.

The price gap is the first thing you see. The Toyota Corolla Cross GX FWD hybrid is $37,440 before on-roads and the Hyundai Kona Hybrid FWD is $36,950, so the cheapest Qashqai is reported at more than $8,000 above either. The fairer match for the ST-L is a better-equipped rival: the Kona Premium Hybrid at $45,950, the Corolla Cross Atmos FWD at $47,990, or the all-wheel drive Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid S at $47,590.

On the figures we list, the Qashqai's 4.1L/100km sits between the Kona Hybrid's 3.9L/100km and the Corolla Cross FWD's 4.2L/100km, and its 404-litre boot is smaller than the 425 litres we hold for the Corolla Cross GX but larger than the Kona Hybrid's 361 litres. Where the Qashqai earns its price is in its drivetrain, since the wheels are only ever driven by the electric motor, and in a cabin that at Ti-L level includes a head-up display, massaging front seats, a panoramic roof and Bose audio. Where it now gives ground is in the equipment it has shed while the price went the other way.

What Nissan Has Not Said

• List prices. The $210 rise and the $45,850 to $53,850 range come from Australian motoring outlets. Nissan's public pages show drive-away figures only, and there is no MY26.5 press release on its Australian newsroom as at 1 October 2026.
• Why equipment was removed. The outlets report that Nissan attributed the price rise to production and logistics pressures. Nothing has been said publicly about the equipment changes.
• The Sport mode figure. The 151kW Sport mode rating printed on the MY26 sheet is not on the MY26.5 sheet, with no explanation.
• Run-out stock. Whether MY26 cars, including the N-Design, are still in dealer stock is a question for your local dealer. A MY26 Ti with the adaptive headlights may be the better buy if one is still around at a sharp price.

Who It Suits, and Who It Does Not

The Qashqai e-POWER still makes the most sense for a buyer who does most of their driving in town and wants something that feels like an electric car without changing how they refuel. The electric-only drive, 4.1L/100km claim and a single-tank range Nissan calculates at more than 1,300km are real strengths, and the ST-L now has the screen it should have had from the start.

It suits less well if you are shopping mainly on price, where the Corolla Cross and Kona hybrids start a long way lower; if you need to tow more than 750kg; or if you drive a lot at night on unlit roads and liked the adaptive lights on the Ti and Ti-L. And if you were weighing up an ST-L, go and sit in a 2WD X-Trail e-POWER first. For $140 more than the Qashqai ST-L's reported list price, it is a lot more car.

If you have already ordered, it is worth asking your dealer which model year your car will be built to, and getting the specification in writing. We will update our CarSorted directory listings for the Qashqai to the MY26.5 specification, and track any offers on our deals page.