Nissan's PIXO arrives in a class that starts at £11,990
Nissan will unveil its small electric city car on 23 September. So far there is a name, a date and one line about where it is built. The last of those is the one worth reading.
9 September 2026
Nissan has named its next electric car PIXO and will unveil it on 23 September 2026. That is close to the whole announcement. It is an A-segment city car, it is "built in Europe, for Europe", it joins the LEAF and the MICRA with a JUKE EV to follow, and there is a teaser video. No battery, no range, no price, no plant, no on-sale date. Two of the things Nissan did say are worth more than they look.
Start with the name, because Nissan has used it before. The Pixo sold in Europe from 2009 to 2013: a Suzuki Alto with Nissan badges, built by Maruti Suzuki in India, and the last car Nissan sold in this class before it walked away from it. Reviving that name makes the phrase "Nissan's return to Europe's A-segment" literal rather than promotional. It also quietly notes that the last time Nissan sold an A-segment car here, somebody else built it.
The second thing is the line Nissan put in its own headline: built in Europe. In this class that is not sentiment, it is arithmetic. The Dacia Spring has been the cheapest electric car in Britain at £11,990 and has never taken a penny of the Electric Car Grant, because it was built in China. Nor has the Leapmotor T03 at £12,995. Eligibility is still decided model by model and no car is entitled to it, but a European-built Nissan starts that conversation in a position neither of those two has ever been in.
Now the gap. Nissan's cheapest electric car today is the MICRA at £21,495. The class it has just announced a car for starts at £11,990. That is £9,505 between the cheapest thing Nissan sells and the cheapest thing in the segment, and Nissan's release uses the words "more accessible option for everyday electric driving". Accessible is a number. Everything interesting about this car is which one.
It is fair to ask what the PIXO will be underneath, and fair to say nobody outside Nissan knows. The MICRA is a Renault 5 in a different suit, which is what an Alliance small car looks like at the moment; a step down from that, the new Twingo and the new Spring are both built at Novo Mesto in Slovenia on the group's smallest electric platform. That is where to look. It is not where to write, and anyone publishing PIXO specifications this week is guessing.
The field it is joining is more crowded at the bottom than it has been in years, and cheaper. The Spring is £11,990 and the T03 £12,995. Above them the Citroën ë-C3 starts at £18,495 and the BYD Dolphin Surf at £18,650, both with their grant already taken off. The Fiat 500e is £20,995, the MICRA £21,495 and the Hyundai INSTER £23,755.
Two of those cars are about to be replaced by versions nobody has priced. Dacia says the new Spring will come in under £18,000 before any subsidy, and Renault has not put a number on the Twingo at all. So the bottom of the market resets this autumn, three times over, and Nissan has picked that moment to say it is coming back. Whether the PIXO is a serious entry or a badge on the shelf next to two Renaults depends entirely on a figure that is a fortnight away.
What is worth saying now is what is not known, because a lot of it will be filled in with guesses before the 23rd. Nissan has published no figure of any kind: not a kilowatt-hour, not a mile, not a pound. We will put the specifications up the day they land.
How it compares
Matched on battery and price rather than trim name, since nobody names their trims the same way. Prices are on the road with any grant already taken off.
| Specification | Spring Dacia | T03 Leapmotor | ë-C3 Citroën | Dolphin Surf BYD | 500e Fiat | MICRA Nissan | INSTER Hyundai |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | £11,990 | £12,995 | £18,495 | £18,650 | £17,245 | £21,495 | £23,755 |
| Range | 140 miles | 165 miles | 130 miles | 137 miles | 118 miles | 196 miles | 203 miles |
| Efficiency | 5 mi/kWh | — | 3.68 mi/kWh | 4.01 mi/kWh | — | 4.38 mi/kWh | — |
| Battery | 24.3 kWh | 37.3 kWh | 30 kWh | 30 kWh | 24 kWh | 40 kWh | 42 kWh |
| Battery chemistry | LFP | — | LFP | LFP | — | NMC | NMC |
| Max fast charge power | 40 kW | — | 30 kW | 65 kW | 50 kW | 80 kW | 73 kW |
| Fastest charge time | 29 mins | — | 36 mins | 30 mins | 30 mins | 30 mins | 30 mins |
| Horsepower | 70 hp | 95 hp | 113 hp | 88 hp | 95 hp | 120 hp | 97 hp |
| Torque | 137 Nm | — | 124.5 Nm | 175 Nm | 220 Nm | 225 Nm | 147 Nm |
| Acceleration | 12.3 secs | 12.7 secs | 10.4 secs | 11.1 secs | 9.5 secs | 9 secs | 11.7 secs |
| Top speed | 77 mph | — | 82 mph | 93 mph | 84 mph | 93 mph | 87 mph |
| Length | 3,701 mm | — | 4,015 mm | 3,990 mm | 3,632 mm | 3,974 mm | 3,825 mm |
| Width | 1,583 mm | — | 1,813 mm | 1,720 mm | 1,683 mm | 1,772 mm | 1,610 mm |
| Height | 1,489 mm | — | 1,577 mm | 1,590 mm | 1,527 mm | 1,499 mm | 1,575 mm |
| Wheelbase | 2,423 mm | — | 2,540 mm | 2,500 mm | — | 2,541 mm | 2,580 mm |
| Boot volume | 308 litres | — | 310 litres | 308 litres | 185 litres | 326 litres | 280 litres |
| Boot volume (max) | 1,004 litres | — | 1,188 litres | 1,037 litres | 550 litres | 1,106 litres | 1,059 litres |
| Seating | 4 seats | 5 seats | 5 seats | 5 seats | 4 seats | 5 seats | 4 seats |
