Nissan’s top brass was in London today to celebrate the unveiling of the Concept 20-23, an all-electric show car that was designed to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Nissan Design Europe (NDE) calling the city home. More importantly, it was there to tease the world with a look ahead at what the Micra’s replacement will look like. Nissan says that it turned to the NDE’s youngest designers while creating this concept car and put few constraints on them. The result is a car that with exaggerated proportions, flared wheel arches, and a massive rear spoiler.
That means a racecar interior with bucket
seats, a square steering yoke, multipoint harnesses, and a brace bar over which
drivers as young as the designers will have to climb. Moreover, it gets
Lamborghini-style scissor doors. While none of the above details are really
expected to be included in any production vehicle, the Concept 20-23’s exterior
is our best look yet at what Nissan is planning for the all-electric followup to
the entry-level Micra.
Strip away the massive wheel arches, the
big spoiler, as well as the road-skimming bumpers and skirts, and you get an
idea of what the car will look like. Details like the big round head- and
taillights, the hood, and the hatchback shape are all expected to be seen in
the upcoming model. Scheduled to enter production in 2026, Nissan announced in
January 2022 that the model would be based on CMF B-EV platform that is being
used by Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance vehicles such as the Renault 5 and
the Alpine A290.
The as of yet unnamed production vehicle
will be “designed by Nissan, engineered and manufactured by Renault,” the
Japanese company said at the time. While performance details have not been
shared yet, its platform-mate, the Renault 5 is expected to have a 402 km range and a motor at the front that generates 134 hp.
Nissan is likely to target a starting price of less than € 25,000 (US$ 26,482), which means that the production version of this
vehicle will be a big departure from the Concept 20-23. But stripping away the
racecar parts will likely only make it nicer to drive around London—even if it
is a little less exciting to look at.

