3rd-gen Nissan Qashqai gets design inspiration from IMx Concept seen at 2017 Tokyo Motor Show

The current Nissan Qashqai (known as the Rogue Sport in the US) has been around for about three years now, and it also recently went through a facelift. In Europe, the model is very important for Nissan as it has been a huge success for them, being the automaker’s best-selling compact crossover in continent, and the best-selling model built in the United Kingdom. The Qashqai is not only popular in Europe as the automaker has also commercialized this C-segment CUV in larger markets all over the world.

To keep its success continuous, Nissan must play its cards right for the next and third generation Qashqai. And already, the Japanese automaker mentioned that the next Qashqai will have some similarities with the IMx Concept that is currently on display at the 2017 Tokyo Motor Show, when it comes to the design.

Alfonso Albaisa, who acts as the company’s senior vice president of global design, says that the IMx concept is just a design study, which means that it will probably never reach the production line. However, he did say that we should expect a production model that will be bigger than the Juke, and it will also get some of its design elements from the IMx. Of course, we should not expect the 2020 Qashqai to look very much like the show car and that it will definitely not be as flashy, but some of the concept cues will be having a road-going equivalent. Albaisa said that the IMx’s strong features will definitely be toned down for the production model.

So now we know that the IMx concept is not just a sneak peak of the company’s electrification strategy, but is also an indication of how the future Qashqai will look. Albaisa also said that the concept looks no further than about three years into the future.

The current Qashqai is being built at a factory in Sunderland, UK, where the first generation model was built ten years ago. And according to sources, the third generation model will be built in the same factory as well. When adding everything up, the Japanese automaker has built over 2.8 million units of the Qashqai alone, and it was a breeze for them to reach both 1M and 2M milestones, compared to any other vehicles out there ever made. And soon enough, they will be hitting the 3M milestone.

To cope with the demand for the Qashqai, the company must produce more units of the crossover. And to do that, they had to invest $70 million last year to expand their facilities in the United Kingdom. Now, their Sunderland factory has enough capacity to produce cars to supply the growing demand for the Qashqai, and it is currently being assembled on two lines.