Nissan Micra is better than ever, but is that enough?

Nissan Micra 52kWh Evolve      Year: 2026Fuel: ElectricVerdict: Nissan has turned the Micra into a polished, practical and efficient electric supermini, though its French twin still has the stronger characterThe formula is simple. Build one car from scratch. Then take all the parts, tweak a few prominent body panels, remap the suspension set-up perhaps, then replace the badging. Hey presto, two cars. Then rinse and repeat for every brand you can get your hands on. This is the recipe for most mainstream car brands. Renault and Nissan are no different, except that their relationship is more fluid than the big car giants like VW with its sub-brands. Here there is supposedly greater equality. So, when Renault created the award-winning and much-lauded all-electric Renault 5, it was a no-brainer that Nissan should do its own take on the car. And what better than its long-term favourite, the Micra. The good news for Nissan is that the Renault 5 has great pedigree. The downside is that Renault was working from a very tightly determined silhouette. The end result left things a bit cramped in the back. And that issue now arises with Micra. The problem with this recipe, of course, is that if there’s an issue with the first car, all the rest are cursed with the same problem. That’s why it’s important to get it right. In styling terms, Nissan didn’t have a great deal of wiggle room. The Renault’s silhouette is quite distinctive, but hats off to the Nissan designers – they’ve delivered some distance between the Micra and to its French sibling. Where the Renault 5 is chic, the Micra is cuddly. Or as cuddly as a car can be. Car designers like to anthropomorphise metal frames, particularly with smaller cars. These designs are largely hooked on headlights to give them eyes, supported by a grinning grille. The new Micra makes much of its front and rear light clusters and they do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to the car’s styling. But is it enough? New all-electric Nissan Micra Cute will only count for so much. Objectively the new Micra is very good. So it should be, given the Renault’s ability. It’s certainly better than past iterations of the Japanese brand’s supermini. The car handles remarkably smoothly and delivers impressive ride quality for a car of this size, helped in part by its weight. It’s supple over the badly surfaced back roads and soaks up the urban speed bumps. Overall the ride is soft without feeling floaty, a flaw with many EVs when engineers overcompensate for the heavy weight. Power comes from a 110kW (150bhp) electric motor supported in the case of our Evolve test car, with a 52kWh battery pack. A smaller 40kWh battery is also available, powering a 90kW (122bhp) electric motor. It’s lively and agile in town, while it also delivers dynamically through the bends on rural roads. But then so does the Renault. In terms of range, Nissan promises 416km or so, and on a full charge our test car was suggesting exactly 360km, which is decent for this class. We were averaging just under 15kWh/100km in the car – even hitting 13kWh/100km on occasions – which is in line with the Renault as well. That’s better than we managed in the Renault, where we were getting 16kWh/100km and above. New all-electric Nissan Micra New all-electric Nissan Micra New all-electric Nissan Micra The Micra’s interior may lack the little signature touches of the Renault, but it’s certainly smart and a veritable luxury cabin compared to the Micras of a decade ago. Integration with Google’s system means its infotainment system is intuitive and there are enough buttons and stalks to let you control key features without scrolling through menus or looking away from the road. But then there is the back seat, and this is where the Micra pays the price of limitations delivered by the Renault. The French car is cramped in the back, particularly in the footwell, and the Micra inherits this same flaw. This car would have been better as a four-seater and having a sliding rear bench. Plus, the bases of the front seats need to be raised by a centimetre or so to give better room for toes tucked into the footwell. Round the back, the boot is a decent 326 litres, but a high lip can hinder loading. This new Micra is the best supermini Nissan has delivered in decades. It’s swift, efficient, comfortable, and provided you are not stuck in the back seat, it will be fine for a long cross-country trip. At present, Renault and Nissan are clearly shadowing each other on headline pricing: €25,995, €27,995, €30,995 and €32,995 line up almost exactly where the cars overlap. Renault has a couple of extra-equipment versions in its line-up, but Nissan Ireland appears to be giving more kit as standard, such as a heat pump, which can help with the battery performance and range. You also get two charging cables from the Japanese brand. [ Renault 5 delivers retro fun and a nippy driveOpens in new window ]Of course there are other superminis on the market, and this EV space is getting crowded. There are also some city cars – like the Hyundai Inster – which would give the Micra a run for its money, particularly at several thousand euro cheaper. But these two stand out from the crowd. The overriding issue here is that there is just not enough to differentiate the Micra from its French sibling. And in a battle of those cars, the heritage of the 5 wins out.New all-electric Nissan Micra New all-electric Nissan Micra The Micra is a fine car but lacks the character and charm of its chic French cousin. Big-eyed light clusters just aren’t enough to counteract that. It exemplifies the bind small EVs now face. To make them affordable and fend off low-cost Chinese rivals, car makers have to share the expensive bits: platforms, batteries, motors, software and factory production lines. But the more they share, the harder it becomes to create the personality that makes a small car memorable. What will decide it for buyers is likely to be their brand preference and the cold calculations of finance offers. This car lives in the shadow of the Renault 5 and sales success will come when customers believe they will get a better deal from a nearby Nissan dealer. The Micra deserves to sell, but the Renault 5 is likely to be loved. Lowdown: Nissan Micra 52kWh EvolvePower: A 110kW (150bhp) electric motor powered by a battery pack with a net capacity of 52KWh, and delivering 245Nm of torqueRange: 416km claimed (360km as tested)Energy consumption: 14.4 kWh/100km as tested0-100km/h: 8 secondsPrice: €32,995 as tested (starts at €25,995 after grants for 40kW battery version)