Meet the funky new Nissan Micra! A 'grandma car' no longer?
Micra returns after two-year hiatus; blockier, funkier design borrows elements from its 2002 forebear
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The radically different new sixth-generation Nissan Micra has been created to appeal to younger, European buyers, in a bid to move the supermini away from being known as a 'grandma car'.
The newest generation of the popular hatchback – which has amassed more than six million sales since first being launched 42 years ago – has been fully revealed by the Japanese firm as a twin to Alliance partner Renault's electric 5. This means it won't be sold with a combustion engine for the first time in its history.
The Micra is aimed squarely at buyers in Europe, a market in which Nissan is looking to grow after suffering heavy losses in recent years, necessitating a major cost-cutting plan.
It arrives as one of four new Nissan EVs due before the end of 2026, the others being the new Leaf crossover, an electric Juke and an A-segment model that will be twinned with the upcoming Renault Twingo.
The new Micra sits on the Ampr Small platform, drawing power from either a 40kWh or a 52kWh battery, which are good for 192 and 253 miles of range. In top-spec form, the battery can accept a charging rate of 100kW to go from 15-80% in 30 minutes.
As with the 5, alongside which the Micra will be produced by Renault in Douai, France, power is sent to a single, front-mounted motor that can be tuned for 121bhp (with the 40kWh battery) or 148bhp (with the 52kWh battery).
Beyond the electric powertrain, the biggest change for the Micra is its radical new design. While it was developed alongside the 5 from the start, Nissan designers were given the freedom to create something that 'was more noticeably Nissan' – although 'we had to fight for it', exterior design manager Yongwook Cho told Autocar.
Described as 'audacious, assertive and funky', the new look takes inspiration from the bulbous Mk3 Micra of 2002, especially for its circular daytime-running lights at both ends.
Cho added that 'it was tough' when his designers were tasked with creating something that would differ visually from the 'already good-looking' 5, especially given the fixed underpinnings.
One change from the 5 is at the front, where the bonnet is higher, longer and features slightly more bulky arches in order to give the Micra a different silhouette.
' We wanted to carry more volume to the front,' said Cho, who added that this gives the Micra more of a crossover feel – like the Renault Megane – than the 5, which is more overtly a hatchback and 'sporty'.
Another differentiator is at the rear, where a lip was added, and at the side (visually where the twins are most obviously related), where there's a shoulder line that looks 'like it's been scooped by a gelato scoop'.
These design elements combine to make the Micra 'a grandma car no more', claimed Cho.
The interior is essentially identical to the 5's, with the same twin 10.25in screens, same switchgear and same materials, but its colour offerings – white, grey and black – are more muted.
That is intended to position Nissan's entry-level EV as more of a premium offering than the 5, European marketing boss Arnaud Charpentier told Autocar. Pricing, he suggested, would therefore start above Renault's £22,995 entry point.
Explaining why Nissan had given the Micra such a radical styling overhaul, Charpentier said: 'The UK is our best market in Europe by far [with 133,000 sales since the start of 2024], so we had to come back with something different.
'I think this new car will create a gap between what people have in mind when they look or think of the [Micra] nameplate and what is now the reality.
'Young buyers? That was the objective.'
Charpentier said traditional Micra buyers in the UK differ from those in other markets. For example, in France and Spain they are younger and 'almost 95% female'. As such, he explained, 'we wanted to come back with something which is gender-neutral'.
Charpentier continued: 'The challenge is really to rejuvenate, because we know that in the UK we have this [grandma] association, and we believe through the audacious and playful design that we see, it's going to help conquer new types of buyers, like younger, modern parents.'
Asked whether sales could be affected by the Micra's switch to electric-only power, he said: 'We will have to explain that it's an EV, a full EV. It had to be explained by Renault with the 5. So that's the fact.'
Touching on the 5's popularity (16,948 sales in Europe so far this year) and lower starting price, Charpentier disagreed that total electrification would inhibit uptake of the Micra.
'We have a very strong nameplate,' he said. 'I'm sure that the nameplate of Micra is stronger in the UK, for example, than the 5. Probably also in Italy. So I'm not worried about this.'
What's more, Charpentier believes that the arrivals of the reinvented Leaf and the next-generation Juke will help rejuvenate Nissan during a turbulent period for the company.
'This new EV line-up will help us to come back in the race,' he predicted.
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