- published: 28 Feb 2014
- views: 775296
The Nissan Qashqai, known as the Nissan Dualis in Japan and Australia, is a compact crossover SUV produced by the Japanese car manufacturer Nissan since 2007. It replaced the off-road capable body-on-frame Mistral as its small SUV offering and its P32L automobile platform will be also used by other forthcoming Nissan crossover SUVs.
The Qashqai is named after the Qashqai (pronounced [qaʃqaːʔiː]), a semi-nomadic Turkic people living in mountainous Southwestern Iran.[citation needed] Nissan's designers believe that the car's typical buyer would also be itinerant in nature. The Chinese nameplate was to be CCUV, an initialism for "Compact Crossover Utility Vehicle", but since the Chinese launch the car has been named Qashqai. In Australia, the Qashqai carries the name Dualis from the JDM version. This was chosen out of fear that Australians might call it the "cash cow".[citation needed]
The Qashqai has been built at Nissan's NMUK Sunderland, Tyne and Wear plant since December 2006.
It is the first model to be styled by Nissan Design Europe in London, with engineering development led by Nissan Technical Centre Europe (NTCE) in Cranfield, Bedfordshire. It was globally presented at the 2006 Paris Motor Show.