Nissan’s top brass was in London today to celebrate the unveiling of the Concept 20-23, an all-electric show car that was designed to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Nissan Design Europe (NDE) calling the city home. More importantly, it was there to tease the world with a look ahead at what the Micra’s replacement will look like.
Nissan says that it turned to the NDE’s youngest designers while creating this concept car and put few constraints on them. The result is a car that with exaggerated proportions, flared wheel arches, and a massive rear spoiler.
“The young team here at NDE was given a simple brief: design a fun electric city car that you’d like to drive every day in London,” said Alfonso Albaisa, Nissan’s senior VP of global design. “The 20-23 Concept that they designed is a compact hatchback which is strongly influenced by the online racing world. I love the story it tells about how the worlds of modern city living, online gaming and zero emissions mobility intersect.”
More: Nissan Announces Renault-Engineered Electric Hatch As Micra Successor For Europe
That means a racecar interior with bucket seats, a square steering yoke, multipoint harnesses, and a brace bar over which drivers as young as the designers will have to climb. Moreover, it gets Lamborghini-style scissor doors.
While none of the above details are really expected to be included in any production vehicle, the Concept 20-23’s exterior is our best look yet at what Nissan is planning for the all-electric followup to the entry-level Micra.
Strip away the massive wheel arches, the big spoiler, as well as the road-skimming bumpers and skirts, and you get an idea of what the car will look like. Details like the big round head- and taillights, the hood, and the hatchback shape are all expected to be seen in the upcoming model.
Scheduled to enter production in 2026, Nissan announced in January 2022 that the model would be based on CMF B-EV platform that is being used by Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance vehicles such as the Renault 5 and the Alpine A290.
The as of yet unnamed production vehicle will be “designed by Nissan, engineered and manufactured by Renault,” the Japanese company said at the time. While performance details have not been shared yet, its platform-mate, the Renault 5 is expected to have a 250-mile (402 km) range and a motor at the front that generates 134 hp (100 kW/136 PS).
Nissan is likely to target a starting price of less than €25,000 ($26,482 USD at current exchange rates), which means that the production version of this vehicle will be a big departure from the Concept 20-23. But stripping away the racecar parts will likely only make it nicer to drive around London—even if it is a little less exciting to look at.
