Nissan Pixo: Could Britain's Former Cheapest Car Make an Electric Comeback?

When the Nissan Pixo arrived in the UK in 2009, it quickly established itself at the very bottom of Britain's new-car market. For the majority of its short life, it was Britain's cheapest new car — a position that became an important part of the little Nissan's identity.

Then, in 2013, Dacia changed the game. The considerably larger Sandero arrived with its now-famous £5,995 starting price, bringing the Pixo's time at the bottom of the market to an abrupt end and resetting expectations of just how much car Britain's cheapest models could offer.

Today, Dacia is once again responsible for Britain's cheapest new car with the Spring. This time, however, a reborn Pixo wouldn't necessarily be fighting Dacia's approach to cheap motoring from the outside. By using the small-EV programme underpinning the new Renault Twingo E-Tech and upcoming Dacia Spring, Nissan could create a genuinely low-cost electric car of its own, sitting substantially below the current Micra EV.

It would return the Pixo to exactly the part of the market where people remember it: simple, small and among the cheapest new cars in Britain. Image: The New Yardstick Design Studio

The original Pixo was already a product of collaboration. Rather than developing an ultra-low-cost city car from scratch, Nissan turned to Suzuki, with the Pixo closely related to the contemporary Alto and both cars produced by Maruti Suzuki in India.

That makes the idea of a Renault-developed successor rather more appropriate than it might initially appear. The badge, partner and technology would change, but the philosophy would be remarkably similar: take an existing small-car programme, give it a Nissan identity and use the economies of scale to put Nissan back at the cheapest end of the market.

Nearly two decades later, globalisation has only made that approach more common. Nissan already shares technology extensively with Renault, while the next Twingo and upcoming Dacia Spring provide something its own European range currently lacks — the foundations for a genuinely inexpensive A-segment EV. Image: Nissan

There is something remarkably familiar about three manufacturers sharing the cost of creating a new generation of affordable city cars.

Twenty years ago, Toyota joined forces with Peugeot and Citroën to create the Aygo, 107 and C1. One Japanese manufacturer and two European brands shared the basic engineering and production of three closely related cars, helping make them cheap to buy, cheap to run and viable to produce.

Two decades later, the same Japanese-European formula could be coming back in electric form. This time it is Nissan representing Japan, alongside European partners Renault and Dacia. The new Twingo and upcoming Spring already share their small-EV foundations, while Nissan's upcoming entry-level EV is clearly heading in the same direction, with Twingo-like proportions and a remarkably similar window line.

If that Nissan becomes the Pixo, the parallels will be difficult to miss. Once again, two European brands and one Japanese manufacturer would be sharing the expensive foundations of three distinct city cars, spreading development costs while giving each its own design and identity.

Twenty years after the Aygo, 107 and C1 showed how effectively that formula could work, electrification may be about to bring it back. Images: Toyota, Peugeot and Citroën. Composite: The New Yardstick.

For a while, Europe's city-car segment looked close to extinction. Tiny petrol cars offered manufacturers slim profit margins, while increasingly expensive emissions and safety requirements made developing a new generation difficult to justify. Now electrification and shared platforms are giving the class another chance.

Toyota's Aygo X has gone hybrid, the Fiat 500e has been joined by a new 500 Hybrid, while the Leapmotor T03, Hyundai Inster and Dacia Spring have already pushed small EVs towards genuinely affordable territory.

Next come the new Renault Twingo E-Tech and upcoming Spring, followed by small Hyundai and Kia EVs and Volkswagen Group's new entry-level Volkswagen and Škoda models. Suddenly, Britain could have a surprisingly crowded selection of city cars competing around or below £20,000.

A new Pixo could give Nissan something its emerging electric range currently lacks: a genuinely low-cost entry point. Sitting comfortably below £20,000, it could focus on compact dimensions, simplicity and everyday urban use, leaving the new Micra EV as the more substantial and desirable supermini.

The Leaf then gives Nissan another fresh electric option for buyers wanting something different again, with greater range and a more crossover-like approach. Together, Pixo, Micra and Leaf could give Nissan three distinct new EVs covering different prices and priorities at the smaller end of the market.

For a brand whose European line-up has sometimes struggled to give each model a clearly defined role, that breadth could become a genuine strength. Illustration: The New Yardstick Design Studio. Pixo rendering shown alongside Nissan Micra and Leaf.

A new Pixo wouldn't need to reinvent Nissan's smallest car. In many ways, the strongest argument for bringing the name back is that it could follow exactly the same philosophy as the original: borrow the expensive foundations from elsewhere, add enough Nissan identity to make the result distinctive, and concentrate on keeping the price low.

With the Micra and Leaf already giving Nissan two fresh electric models further up the range, a Pixo priced comfortably below them could complete one of the most convincing small-EV line-ups on the UK market.

The technology would be completely different from 2009, but the objective would be remarkably familiar. If Nissan really wants to put an electric car back near the bottom of Britain's price lists, the Pixo might be exactly the right name for it. Image: The New Yardstick Design Studio.