2021 Nissan Rogue spy shots give us our first look at the next-gen crossover

Here's our first look at what we think is the next-gen Nissan Rogue, and it looks like Nissan is shaking it up this time. The swoopy and swept-back design on the current Rogue's front end is nowhere to be found, as it's replaced by a blocky, straight up and down look. If not for the semi-visible V-Motion grille seen through the wrappings, it would be rather difficult to I.D. this car.

Much of that is due to the rather generic crossover shape seen through the camouflage. The closest thing to a Rogue-like concept car we've seen from Nissan as of late is the Xmotion, and this doesn't exactly take much inspiration from the wild concept. That particular car is much more rugged in appearance, while this one remains a staid crossover, making sure it doesn't rock the boat. One specific design element we can pick out is a separate headlight/driving light setup. Similar to cars like the Hyundai Santa Fe or Chevrolet Blazer, the Rogue appears to be splitting up the DRL from the main headlight. The size of the gap between the two visible headlight fixtures is just too large for it all to be one massive headlight unit. With headlights getting smaller all the time, and this design trend starting to take off, it's no big surprise to see it here.

There's nothing particularly special about the rear end. However, a curious line in the camo near the rear window that arches downward at an angle looks suspect to us. Nissan has been all-in on the floating roof design, so perhaps a version of that is coming to the Rogue. The taillights are definitely horizontally placed, and look to be far narrower than the current bulbous units. A little spoiler hanging over the rear window gives it a bit of sporting emotion, but it's rather devoid of excitement elsewhere, as least as far as we can tell from these images. One thing's for sure, the third window in the rear is way bigger than the current Rogue's rear-most window. The vehicle certainly doesn't appear to encroach on Pathfinder size, but a growing Rogue makes sense to further separate itself from the little Rogue Sport.

As for when the Rogue is going to launch, our best guess for now is the 2021 model year. It's certainly due for an update soon (current gen debuted as a 2014 model year), but there's still no confirmation from Nissan on that.