2014 Nissan Rogue: Do You Know What Pure Drive Is?
June 9, 2014
There's a "Pure Drive" badge on our 2014 Nissan Rogue.
Does that mean it's a hybrid? No.
A hydrogen-powered Rogue? Nope, not that either.
Those would be reasonable guesses, but they give that little badge too much credit. Turns out "Pure Drive" is simply a name for what Nissan says is "our action to improve fuel economy of engine-powered vehicles."
By that, Nissan means squeezing out every last piece of efficiency on conventionally-powered vehicles. In the case of our Rogue, it involves the use of a CVT in place of a traditional automatic transmission. As far as I can tell, there isn't much more to it than that, although there are no doubt dozens of small changes made throughout the vehicle to improve its efficiency.
Nissan isn't the only car builder that has decided to attach a name to fuel efficiency. Mazda does it with Skyactiv which sounds even more bizarre and hard to explain than Pure Drive. Mercedes has Bluetec, but it mainly applies to its clean diesel technology.
So although our 2014 Rogue isn't a hybrid and it doesn't emit water, it's more efficient than the last Rogue. Does that deserve a badge? Nissan thinks so.
Ed Hellwig, Executive Editor