Nissan Micra to attract a female audience

NISSAN gave the design team charged with styling the sixth-generation Micra a clear mission: make it different to the Renault 5 – and make it more elegant.

According to the head of Nissan Europe product planning, those goals have been achieved, leaving the ‘5’ to a more masculine buyer set, and the Micra for a female audience.

“The Micra is a more elegant model that will attract more female buyers, while the Renault 5 is a sportier, more masculine model,” Alexandre Armada told Automotive News Europe this week.

Penned in Nissan’s London studio, the new Nissan Micra is dominated by large, circular LED headlights, a signature repeated at the rear. By contrast, the lights of the Renault 5 are trapezoidal in the front and vertical in the rear.

Nissan designers say the changes gives the Micra “its own visual personality” despite the model carrying over the 5’s roof and greenhouse.

According to Automotive News Europe, the body panels of the Micra are also differentiated from the Renault 5 without changing any of the donor model’s hard points. Looking at the wheel arches, it’s easy to see the differences, the former being more rounded – and more pronounced.

Moving inside, we note a steering wheel that is specific to the Nissan model, the Micra also adopting a one-pedal driving option not available in the Renault 5.

What is familiar to the Nissan Micra and Renault 5 are some of the harder to alter mechanicals, including the battery pack, electric motors, heat pump, ADAS technologies, and infotainment system.

For the UK market, the Nissan Micra will offer a choice between 40kWh or 52kWh battery packs delivering a driving range of up to 419km (WLTP). Charging power (DC) is rated at up to 110kW with charging from 15-80 per cent achievable in as little as 30 minutes.

Two power options are available from the single electric motor – 90kW or 110kW – with both model grades including a standard heat pump to improve battery efficiency and range.

Equipment highlights for the 2025 Nissan Micra include built-in Google Maps, over-the-air software updates, adaptive cruise control, autonomous emergency braking, blind spot warning, lane change warning, and rear autonomous emergency braking.

Both the entry-grade Nissan Micra and Renault 5 are identically priced at €28,000 ($A50,025) plus on-road costs.

The Nissan Micra is built alongside the Renault 5 at a shared facility in Douai, France. The model forms part of Nissan’s strategy to launch four new battery electric vehicles before 2027, the Micra to be followed by the all-new Leaf in Q2 next year.

The Leaf will be followed by an electric-only Juke later in 2026, while the fourth model, based on the Renault Twingo, will arrive in early 2027.

Nissan Australia has said previously that it has no plans to release the Micra locally.