Nissan’s small-car future: Will embattled Japanese brand look to Kicks or small EV to fight Chery Tiggo 4, MG ZS, Haval Jolion?

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With the Juke compact crossover discontinued in Australia and Nissan’s Qashqai small-medium SUV now a hybrid-only proposition, starting beyond $50,000 driveaway, the long-established Japanese brand is currently without a small, affordable car for the first time since it debuted here (with the Datsun brand) in the early 1960s.

Despite a plethora of smaller Chinese vehicles of all types and powertrains swamping the market, an entry-level Nissan model currently remains unviable seeing that the striking new-generation Juke has been rejected for our market – at least for now.

Set to launch in early 2027 in Europe, the third-generation Juke will be EV-only, riding on shared Nissan Leaf underpinnings, built in Sunderland in the UK. So right-hand drive is a no brainer, but shipping and exchange rates essentially rule it out for Australia.

Nissan’s global corporate executive for family, product and component strategy, Richard Candler, spoke to Chasing Cars recently at the Nissan Vision event in Japan and said the new Juke isn’t completely off the table, but it’s a challenge.

“I’m not saying we wouldn’t bring Juke. I mean, we could – we could certainly discuss it. But shipping it around the world, and then, you know, the foreign exchange into Aussie dollars is quite complex these days,” said Candler, implying it would be tough to make the Juke EV price competitive.

But Nissan has another small global SUV that looks terrific and appears more suited to Australia than the Juke. It’s called Kicks.

“We’re in a position of restructuring what the portfolio is going to look like for the next stage for Australia. I think Kicks could be an option for sure. Let me look at it. I mean, we have a lot of global industrialisation of Kicks. That’s one of the great things. So we have a few different options we could look at for sure. And we have right-hand drive [production] as well,” said Candler.

The second-generation Kicks launched in the US in 2024 and other markets in 2025. Produced in Mexico and Brazil, the North American version currently uses a naturally aspirated 105kW/191Nm 2.0-litre four-cylinder tied to a CVT automatic (in FWD and AWD forms) while the South American Kicks gets a flex-fuel 92kW/220Nm 1.0-litre turbo-petrol three-cylinder with a six-speed dual-clutch ’box (ala outgoing Juke).

There’s also a cheaper Kicks Play (sold only in Mexico and Canada) which is essentially the first-generation Kicks from 2016 – an older, smaller, less attractive vehicle that would achieve little for the Nissan brand in Australia.

That said, Thailand introduced an extensively facelifted Kicks e-Power in March, using the decade-old, first-gen core with new front and rear styling, a redesigned interior and upgraded multimedia and safety, powered by a pukka e-Power drivetrain.

This involves a 58kW/103Nm 1.2-litre three-cylinder petrol engine acting as a generator for the 1.57kWh battery and a 95kW/260Nm electric motor. It’s also right-hand drive.

What we won’t be seeing is the French-built, Renault 5-based Nissan Micra EV (too expensive) or any more turbo-petrol, non-hybrid versions of the Qashqai (for NVES reasons). Which leaves the Kicks – one of them – as Nissan’s best chance of reviving its small-car fortunes.

Said Candler: “I think one of the questions should be: ‘How many cars do we need for Australia?’ We already have quite a big line-up, and I know we’re doing a bit of restructuring at the moment, but you know, what is the right balance of number of cars versus the size of the market?

“Give me a few months. We’ll come back and we should have a proper discussion about what we do for the Australian market. We’re certainly not going to give up on it, that’s for sure. We need to do more with it,” said Candler optimistically.

“We are actively studying those products and trying to find some synergies with other right-hand-drive markets so that we can make it work. So I’m committed to Australia. I really want to make Australia work. I feel that we can do more,” he said.

An ideal scenario would be the funky second-gen Kicks with either the turbo-triple petrol or an e-Power hybrid drivetrain, built in right-hand drive. But given that exact specification currently doesn’t exist, perhaps Nissan Oz will be without an affordable entry model for longer than it desires … unless another right-hook market comes to the party.

Nissan (and its Datsun-brand predecessor) has historically been quite strong at the lower end in Australia – at least until the last decade or so.

Landmark cars include the Datsun 1200 (1970-74) and its popular-but-maligned 120Y successor (1974-79), the Nissan Pulsar during its 1980s and ’90s heyday (peaking with the N14 from 1991-95) and even niche cars such as the British-built K11 Micra (1995-97) and the ultra-reliable K12 Micra (2007-10).

But in recent times, aside from the quirky but compromised gen-two Juke, we’ve had the dull-as-dishwater B17 Pulsar (2013-17) and the depressing, Micra-based Almera sedan (2012-13) – both of which were leagues adrift of Nissan best small-car offerings, each discontinued without replacement.