Nissan’s Qashqai outlasts a taxi, a pickup and a plane in range-anxiety chase film

Nissan has tackled range anxiety with an action-led film designed to persuade drivers that its new Qashqai hybrid can travel nearly 800 miles on a single tank.

Drivers considering an electric SUV often worry that the battery will run flat halfway along a motorway, far from a charger. Nissan has chosen an emotional demonstration over facts and figures about its e-Power Hybrid technology to address that fear.

Follow that car

The film borrows the Hollywood line “Follow that car!” The car in question is the new Qashqai, with a father driving and children in the back. A woman in pyjamas and a dressing gown runs down the street shouting “Wait, wait!” and leaps into a taxi. They nearly catch up, and she waves frantically through the window to catch the driver’s eye.

On a mountain road, the taxi splutters to a stop, and a close-up shows the fuel gauge on empty. The woman then hitches a lift with a farmer whose pickup is loaded with hay bales, until that also runs out of fuel. She somehow gets hold of an electric bike and pedals hard until its battery dies.

Next she is aboard a single-propeller plane, where the pilot tells her: “Oh no, we’re out of fuel.” “Seriously?” she replies.

She parachutes into the sea and walks up the beach soaking wet, holding a soft toy. The reason for the chase then becomes clear: she is the children’s mother, and their father has driven off without the all-important teddy bear.

The premise is deliberately far-fetched, but the cinematography and pounding soundtrack carry the story, and the film makes its point about range without showing a number, graph or pie chart.

Produced by Partizan

The film was produced by Partizan and directed by Antoine Bardou-Jacquet, who plays the chase entirely straight, with the scale and precision of a blockbuster set piece.

Supporting the hero film are more than 50 social-first and digital assets, being rolled out in more than 30 markets and carrying the Qashqai’s range message and the campaign’s story across all screens.

The agency was TBWA\Nissan United, with Stephane Boutier as managing director and Philippe Rachel and Carl Harborg as executive creative directors. Sound was produced by Else.