Nissan Micra review

Can the magic of the new Renault 5 also help spark an electric renaissance for the Nissan Micra?

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For a car that has sold more than six million examples across five generations and more than 40 years, the Nissan Micra doesn’t half suffer from an identity crisis.

By the time a car enters its sixth generation, you can normally set your watch to what its replacement is going to be. Longevity in the car industry can often be a byword for success when a name survives for so long.

Yet like the five Micras before it, this new sixth-generation model is a very different Micra again.

It has gone electric and is a twin of the Renault 5, with little to no mechanical changes from what is admittedly a very good starting point, given that it’s the must-have car of 2025 and the reigning Car of the Year.

It has been given an extensive reskin by Nissan’s design team at Paddington, however, and if the Mk6 Micra draws on any of its predecessors for inspiration, then it's the Mk3, the funky bubble version that probably marked the high point for the Micra before it really lost its way in the 2010s.

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DESIGN & STYLING

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Given the 5 isn't just a rebirth for Renault’s supermini icon but a posterchild for the rebirth of the company itself, Nissan’s designers have on the face of it been backed into a tricky corner to try to claim the Micra as its own.

Yet they’ve done a good job. The obvious question is 'does it look like a Renault 5?'. The front and rear redesigns are substantial enough to not have you confused, and the clever use of dark cladding at the bottom of the car also helps change the proportions slightly, making the car seem taller. It’s only really when you look at the profiles of the two cars where the similarities really leap out, the 5’s distinctive C-pillar design a particular giveaway.

There are 14 different colour combinations and three wheel options, all 18in in size and two of which are alloy. The wheels are boldly styled and look good.
Mark Tisshaw
Editor

The pair, which roll down the same production line in France, unsurprisingly share dimensions, with the Micra being just over 3.9m long and just under 1.8m wide.

At the car’s reveal, Nissan was more colloquially saying the Micra is no longer a “grandma car”, which is another way of saying they picked the better received Mk3 as that reference point rather than some of the more staid Micras past.

The biggest visual link between Micra’s three and six is the round front light design, yet the more rounded and raised feel of this Micra also links the two on a more macro level.

There are several features this Micra has all to its own: there are frequent details that are a brace of vertical lines next to a trio of horizontal lines to represent two and three, which is how you would translate the syllables of Nissan into English. The design team are also proud of the line running down the body side, which they say looks like it has been made by a gelato scoop. It kind of does, to be fair. 

Colour is another differentiator between the 5 and the Micra. The Micra has a more monochrome palette of greys and blacks with a dash of red and blue in the exterior design colour options, rather than the much more vibrant yellows and greens of the 5. 

INTERIOR

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There are fewer places to hide the fact the Micra is a 5 underneath in the interior in its layout points. Trim aside, they are effectively one of the same. Yet Nissan has used this trim well to create a different feel and aesthetic to the Micra’s interior over the 5. 

To be clear, this close relationship is no bad thing – quite the opposite. There’s a real vibrancy and richness to the Micra’s interior, and you know where your money has been spent. Superminis of only a generation ago feel old-hat and austere when compared with the likes of the 5 and Micra inside. 

There’s a graphic of Mount Fuji in the central storage between the seats. Nissan says there’s another Mount Fuji graphic elsewhere, yet this tester didn’t find it…
Mark Tisshaw
Editor

Nissan offers three different interior themes buyers can choose. The base Comfort grade has a different and smaller screen arrangement when compared to the higher trims of Audacious and Chill, which get a pair of 10.3in screens and run the integrated (and very good) Google infotainment software.

Renault offers a similar basic 5, and the recommendation there is to skip it and go higher up the range, as you get so many more features on top; we would say the same for the Micra.

The Chill interior in the Micra has light trim and an airy feel, while the Audacious one doesn’t really feel as it sounds but is still a nice place to be, with a real Japanese look and feel to it. The lines on the dashboard trim are said to mimic those of a raked zen garden, so says Nissan.

Our drive and time with the Micra has so far been short and on closed roads, so more extensive usability analysis will have to wait. Yet the overall look and feel is a good one on first impressions, while if the 5 is anything to go on (which, in this case it really is) then the tech will be fast and initiative to use.

Roominess wise, for Micra read 5: cramped in the back, but offset by a bigger boot (366 litres). That boot has a high load lip, however, which limits usability. There's storage for the charging cable under the boot floor.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

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Have we mentioned yet that the Micra is based on the Renault 5? If the two do diverge in their design, they don’t in this section.

Like the 5, the Micra is powered by a front-mounted electric motor with 121bhp or 148bhp. The former is used with the smaller 40kWh battery option and the latter with the 52kWh battery.

There are different driving modes which unlock different amounts of power. Eco saps power to the point of being undrivable. Comfort and Sport give max peak power but with more urgent acceleration in Sport.
Mark Tisshaw
Editor

Our drive was limited to two runs of the Hill Route at Millbrook Proving Ground, which for testing a car is actually quite a good use of 10 minutes. It would be good fun in a 5, and so it is in a Micra.

The Micra is nippy and grippy, with a good amount of torque low down and a car that’s more about agility and having fun at everyday speeds rather than trying to mimic a hot hatch. There’s the third model based on this platform, the Alpine A290, for that.

Like with many small electric cars, it’s quick off the line but performance tails off at higher speeds, but that’s to be expected and is part of the brief really for a small supermini like this.

The brake pedal can take some adjusting to if you’ve driven other small electric cars, as it’s stiffer and actually feels quite responsive. To that end, brake feel and response are as good as it gets so far from a mainstream EV. 

You can also slow the car down by using the paddles on the steering wheel to adjust the amount of regenerative braking. This cycles through three different settings and there is also a one-pedal mode that can be activated this way, which can bring the car to a complete stop.

RIDE & HANDLING

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The platform on which the Micra is based is called Ampr Small, and chassis development for the Micra was left to Renault.

The Micra hasn’t been given its own chassis tune, then, so while it tries to look like a Nissan, it doesn’t try to drive like one.

The use of the 5’s platform means that multi-link rear suspension features as standard on the Micra.
Mark Tisshaw
Editor

Again, this isn’t a bad thing. Both brands would likely pitch the car in a similar way left to their own devices, anyway, and while Nissan shouldn’t be given any credit for the way the Micra has been set up, its engineers certainly shouldn’t be disappointed with what has come back from their French colleagues. 

The qualification here is that these impressions are from a short drive of a prototype vehicle at a proving ground – but this test track can quickly expose any shortcomings in a chassis.

It handles bumps in the road well and it turns into corners nicely. This is a car that will put a smile on your face and coax you into making you enjoy driving it. 

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

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Pricing and equipment levels have yet to be confirmed by Nissan ahead of its official launch, yet at the car’s unveiling, bosses hinted that it would be priced marginally above the 5 (which starts from £23,000), as Nissan believes its modifications makes the model a more premium product.

One thing that is confirmed as standard is a heat pump, which is important for preserving efficiency and getting the cabin warm on cold days.

Half an hour of DC charging will return the battery capacity from 15% to 80%.
Mark Tisshaw
Editor

The 40kWh battery gives a range of 192 miles and the larger 52kWh battery a range of 253 miles. Our experiences with the 5 suggest poor efficiency at motorway speeds, which will harm the range.

VERDICT

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Given how good the 5 is, is it any surprise to find on these very early impressions that the Micra is quite a good car itself? The changes between the pair are only visual, after all, even if said changes are successful in creating a different identity. 

It creates quite an odd situation though, in truth. The 5 is such a fabulous design and such a bold statement that it feels a bit grubby to be showering praise upon Nissan for putting a new skin on it. It’s a bit like when John Terry put his full Chelsea kit on to lift the Champions League trophy despite having not played the final.

The 5 is easier on the eye than the Micra and is simply cooler. That’s nothing against the Micra, more a highlight of just how good a design the 5 is.
Mark Tisshaw
Editor

Take the 5 out of things and the Micra is still a return to form for this ‘storied’ model name and for Nissan in the supermini arena. Put the 5 back in the mix and it remains the more desirable car than the Micra.

Still, welcome back, Micra. From this early drive, the Mk6 is already looking like being one of the better Micras from the slightly random back catalogue. 

Mark Tisshaw

mark-tisshaw-autocar
Title: Editor

Mark is a journalist with more than a decade of top-level experience in the automotive industry. He first joined Autocar in 2009, having previously worked in local newspapers. He has held several roles at Autocar, including news editor, deputy editor, digital editor and his current position of editor, one he has held since 2017.

From this position he oversees all of Autocar’s content across the print magazine, autocar.co.uk website, social media, video, and podcast channels, as well as our recent launch, Autocar Business. Mark regularly interviews the very top global executives in the automotive industry, telling their stories and holding them to account, meeting them at shows and events around the world.

Mark is a Car of the Year juror, a prestigious annual award that Autocar is one of the main sponsors of. He has made media appearances on the likes of the BBC, and contributed to titles including What Car?, Move Electric and Pistonheads, and has written a column for The Sun.