I drove Nissan's new $50,000 Ariya SUV. It's an elegant, high-tech EV with some annoying flaws

I was impressed by the Ariya EV's elegant styling, its quiet and comfortable cabin, and competitive pricing.

However, I felt a little let down by the its low peak charging rate and a few counterintuitive design choices in the cabin.

For 2024, Nissan slashed the prices of models across the Ariya lineup to better position it to compete in the marketplace.

The starting price of the base front-wheel-drive Ariya Engage fell to $39,590. All-wheel-drive adds another $4,000.

At the other end of the spectrum is the top-spec, all-wheel-drive Ariya Platinum+ e-4FORCE, which starts at $54,190.

My well-equipped front-wheel-drive Empower+ test car also received a $6,000 discount for 2024 and carried a starting price of $47,690.

Freight fees and a couple of cosmetic options pushed the as-test price past the $50,000 mark.

The Nissan design team did a good job with the Ariya's aesthetics. It strikes a balance between being edgy enough to feel modern and futuristic and subtle and restrained enough to avoid being off-putting.

The black grille features a large illuminated Nissan logo and is flanked by LED headlights and running lights.

Each of Ariya's LED headlights consists of four 20-millimeter mini-projectors.

A large, single-piece LED light strip runs across the width of the rear facia.

The top-spec all-wheel-drive Platinum+ e-4ORCE trim can be optioned with larger 20-inch alloys.

Front-wheel-drive Ariyas have 6.3 inches of ground clearance, while all-wheel-drive variants get 6.7 inches.

Those figures are on par with those of rival EVs like the VW ID.4 and Hyundai IONIQ5, but they fall short of Rogue's 8.2 inches.

While entry-level Engage trim units get a 66 kWh pack, all other Ariyas are equipped with the larger 91 kWh pack.

My Ariya Empower+ test car had a single electric motor mounted to the front axle, producing 238 horsepower and 221 lb. ft. of torque.

With the addition of a rear axle motor, all-wheel-drive variants can be had with as much as 389 horsepower.

The Ariya's 130kW DC fast charging rate allows it to charge from 20% to 80% in 40 minutes.

That falls behind rivals like the Volkswagen ID.4's 175kW DC fast-charging speed, which allows it to charge from 10% to 80% in about 30 minutes.

Both vehicles trail the Hyundai IONIQ5, which can charge from 10% to 80% in just 18 minutes using 350kW DC fast charging, one of the fastest charging rates out there.

My test car was rated for a solid 289 miles of range. With some gingerly applied throttle and the regenerative braking turned up, I found I could easily surpass the 300-mile mark.

The driving experience was relaxed and carefree.

With 238 horsepower on tap to lug around 4,600 lbs of mass, the Ariya is no barn burner.

But it's far from underpowered. What power it does have, the Ariya uses efficiently and effectively.

There's plenty of pep off the line, and acceleration continues linearly up to highway speeds.

According to Car and Driver, the Ariya Empower+ can go from 0 to 60 mph in a more-than-respectable 7.5 seconds.

The Ariya's exterior styling looks good, but the interior looks even better.

Not only is overall material quality solid, but there's also a good diversity of differing textures in the major touchpoints around the cabin, including faux leather, imitation open-pore wood, and copper accents.

Unfortunately, the moonroof reduces headroom for front-seat passengers by about two inches.

The seats, designed to combat driver fatigue through improved posture, provided great support and were incredibly comfortable.

The flat bottom steering wheel was well weighted and perfectly molded to my hands.

In front of that is a configurable digital display.

The Ariya runs a version of Nissan's corporate infotainment system, which is solid and fairly easy to use but not the industry's best.

On the plus side, the system comes standard with wireless Apple CarPlay and wired Android Auto.

In addition, the shortcut touch buttons to the left of the screen for functions such as CarPlay and the climate controls were very helpful.

The Ariya's auto park system is actuated with a button next to the shifter on the center console.

The center console is also home to the Ariya's toggle-style shifter and a pair of cup holders.

The coolest part of this setup is a cable wrap next to the mobile device slot that keeps your charging cords from becoming a tangled mess in the footwell.

That's about four inches less than the Rogue and two inches short of the IONIQ5.

The Ariya offers an inch less headroom than the Rogue, but about 0.8 inches more than a comparable IONIQ5.

The camera is located near the top of the ear windshield and projects an image onto the rearview mirror above the front dash.

For example, designers decided to embed the Ariya's primary climate controls into the imitation open-pore wood accent on the front dash. The capacitive touch controls look great, but a physical button would make them a lot easier to use on the fly.

According to Nissan, the power retractable tray offers additional utility for those wishing to turn the Ariya into a mobile office.

However, I found the tray table useful only when the vehicle was stationary. When I drove around with my smartphone on the table, it slid around too much for comfort.

In addition, the motor used to actuate the tray table is kind of slow, and you have to hold down the controls, or it will stop moving.

I've never seen this feature before. Nissan says it helps better tailor the shifter's position to the driver. I've driven a few hundred different cars in my life, and the position of the shifter on the center console has seldom been an issue.

It's a fun talking point, but ultimately, it's much ado about nothing.

The Ariya's stylish sloping rear roofline eats into its cargo capacity, which is nearly 10 cubic feet short of the boxier Rogue.

Fold the rear seats down, and the cargo room expands to 59.7 cubic feet.

The system, also available on other Nissan models like the Rogue, allows for the floor panels to be removed to create a deeper cargo well or for the panels to be placed into slots as cargo dividers.

The cargo dividers were handy during my grocery runs, preventing pallets of water from sliding into and crushing the produce.

Instead, Nissan chose to locate the electronics and mechanicals powering the Ariya's climate control under the hood. This isolates the equipment's noise and vibration away from the occupants, facilitating a quieter cabin.

The Ariya comes standard with a host of safety and assistance tech, including automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, intelligent cruise control with distance control assist, intelligent forward collision warning, lane departure warning, intelligent lane intervention, blind spot warning, intelligent blond spot intervention, rear cross-traffic alert, rear automatic braking, intelligent driver alertness, traffic sign recognition, and Nissan's ProPILOT Assist and Park hands-on driver assist system.

After a decade of selling affordable EV hatchbacks, Nissan took a step forward into the modern EV market with the Ariya.

Although Nissan may not have the same cache among EV shoppers as a Hyundai or Tesla, overlooking the Ariya would be a mistake.

Despite a less-than-ideal peak fast charging speed, the Ariya remains a capable EV with sophisticated styling priced to compete among the latest electric compact SUVs on the market.