It has sold 1.8 million units across 70 countries since it was launched ten years ago. Still, it never made it to European shores. Until now. Nissan will build the Kicks in the UK to fill the slot from the outgoing combustion-engined Juke. But it’s a different type of species.
Manufactured at the Sunderland plant in England, Nissan’s B-segment crossover is headed to Europe for the first time. It brings along the driveline that is most wanted in the home country of its most important rivals: a series hybrid.
Not another Renault
The entree after a ten-year absence really tells the whole story. Nissan doesn’t need another compact crossover, let alone another Renault that is being redesigned by its Yokohama crew. But to regain some lost ground in Europe, the ailing carmaker does need a lower-cost entry point.
That’s where the Chinese rivals are finding most of their customers. And they do so in the majority with electrified drivelines, not battery-electric vehicles. Still, Chinese brands sold more than 660,000 vehicles in Europe in the first half of this year, up 107 per cent year-on-year, capturing 9.2 per cent market share.
Third-generation ePower
The European Kicks will use Nissan’s third-generation e-Power system. As a reminder of how it works: the petrol engine acts exclusively as a generator and feeds a 2.1 kWh battery (in the Qashqai eP-ower, the Japanese Kicks boasts 1.5 kWh) that powers an electric motor driving the wheels. There is no mechanical link between the combustion engine and the road.
Nissan claims this gives drivers the refinement and instant response of an electric car without ever needing to plug in. Range anxiety becomes something you read about online, a series hybrid always has the petrol power to rely upon.
Facing fines?
The good news is that, in Japan, the Kicks e-Power starts at roughly 3 million yen – around €16,750. But it seems unlikely that Nissan will be able to offer the car in Europe at such a low price point. Even though it will be locally built in the UK.
The latter also makes it clear why Nissan has lobbyd so strongly with the UK government to water down their ZEV mandate. There’s a risk that the brand faces fines over not manufacturing a full-fledged battery-electric vehicle. A final government decision is still pending.
Wave of new products
Serial hybrids still cope with a decent amount of CO2. If we look at the Japanese figures for the Kicks, it emits between 90 and 116 grams of CO2 per kilometre. Better than most pure-petrol rivals, but a lot worse than pure-electric competitors.
As a rival to the Toyota Yaris Cross Hybrid, or the BYD Atto 2 DM-i, the Kicks might look like an acknowledgment that Nissan cannot yet build an affordable European EV at a profit. But is it? The brand will soon reveal the all-electric Juke, which is also manufactured in Sunderland.
And then there’s the soon to be unveiled new PIXO. But that’s a rebadged Renault Twingo E-Tech, not a genuine Nissan product. The all-electric Qashqai, on the other hand, has been cancelled.
