New Nissan PIXO 2026 what we know so far

What has Nissan actually confirmed about the PIXO?

Very little, and that's deliberate. Nissan's European newsroom release of 9 September 2026 confirms the name, the segment, the powertrain, the reveal date, and that the car is built in Europe. It confirms no specification whatsoever. No battery size, no range figure, no price, not one photograph beyond a teaser.

Nissan's own words: the PIXO is "small in size yet big in personality," a car "created for modern urban life" that "combines compact dimensions with intuitive technology and distinctive Nissan design." The release frames it as Nissan's "return to Europe's A-segment," offering "a new and more accessible option for everyday electric driving."

The teaser image is a purple pixel-built smiley face, two eyes and a grin rendered as extruded cubes, sitting over the PIXO wordmark and the date. Pixels. Pixo. Nobody said it was subtle.

Nissan positions the car alongside the LEAF, the MICRA and a JUKE EV still to come. That's four electric models, and the PIXO sits at the bottom of the ladder.

Hang on, didn't Nissan already make a PIXO?

Nissan did. The original Nissan Pixo was a petrol city car sold in Britain from June 2009 until autumn 2013, and it was a rebadged Suzuki. Specifically, it was the sister car to the Maruti Suzuki A-Star, sold here as the Suzuki Alto, and it was built in India alongside its Suzuki twin.

This is the part the news sites have skipped, and it's worth five minutes of your time, because the two cars could hardly be less alike.

The 2009 Pixo ran a 996cc three-cylinder petrol engine making 68PS at 6,000rpm and 90Nm of torque, through a five-speed manual or a four-speed automatic. Nought to sixty-two took 13.5 seconds. It weighed 885kg. It was 3,565mm long, which is 65mm more than the Suzuki Alto it shared a wheelbase with. All of that difference sat in the bumpers. The boot held 129 litres, enough for a large weekly shop and very little else.

It went on sale on 1 June 2009 at £6,995 on the road for the entry Visia, rising to £7,745 for the Acenta and £8,645 for the Tekna. In the most literal sense: cheap transport.

Emissions started at 103g/km of CO2 and dropped to 99g/km after the 2012 facelift. Under the VED rules in force then, that moved the later cars into Band A and zero annual road tax. Worth saying plainly: that hasn't been true since April 2025, when Band A cars started paying £20 a year. On the old NEDC test it managed around 65mpg.

Autocar's verdict at the time was polite rather than warm. It praised the "peppy in-town performance," the surprisingly good body control and the low running costs. It criticised an interior that was "uninteresting almost everywhere," narrow flat seats, no reach adjustment on the steering wheel, and an engine that got "a bit thrashy" when worked. Rivals like the Hyundai i10 and Toyota Aygo felt better made at the time for not much more money.

The Pixo quietly left UK showrooms in autumn 2013. Nissan has had nothing in the A-segment here since. Thirteen years of gap, and the PIXO is being sent back to fill it.

2009 Pixo vs 2026 PIXO: what changed?

The new car's figures aren't confirmed. But the Renault Twingo it's based on is a known quantity, so this is the shape of the gap. Old car confirmed, new car expected.

Two numbers stand out. The new car is expected to be around 315kg heavier, because the batteries have to live somewhere. Its boot is nearly three times bigger despite the car growing only 224mm. That's what happens when you delete the engine bay and stand the cabin upright.

The performance gap, though, is similar as it is a city car made for darting around towns and small city streets. Thirteen years and an entire powertrain revolution bought about 1.4 seconds to sixty-two miles per hour. City cars are city cars.

What we expect the PIXO to be?

Everything below is expectation, not confirmation. Nissan has published none of it. We'll update this page on reveal day.

The underpinnings are the firmest part of this. Renault and Nissan announced on 31 March 2025 that Renault, through Ampere, would "develop and produce a derivative of Twingo, an A-segment vehicle, for Nissan from 2026". A cost-sharing deal, with Nissan doing its own design work. That release didn't name a factory. Trade press covering the PIXO reveal points to Renault's plant at Novo Mesto, Slovenia, which builds the Twingo E-Tech, on the RGEV Small platform (previously AmpR Small).

The Twingo's published figures give the likely ballpark:

• 27.5kWh usable LFP battery
• 60kW (82PS) and 175Nm, front-wheel drive
• 163 miles WLTP (263km), with real-world figures nearer 110 miles in mild weather and 95 in the cold
• 6.6kW AC charging as standard, 11kW optional; 50kW DC rapid charging optional
• Four seats, 360-litre boot, around 1,200kg

Reported design differences for the Nissan include squared-off headlights, a revised bonnet and a cube-pattern front intake, which would tie the styling to that pixel teaser rather neatly.

On price, Nissan is reported to be targeting around £18,000. Carscoops quotes roughly €19,500 for mainland Europe. Neither figure is official.

Where would the PIXO sit in Nissan's EV range?

Below everything. Here's the ladder as it stands today, with the two confirmed cars priced and the PIXO estimated.

If the £18,000 figure holds, the PIXO would undercut the MICRA by around £5,000 on list price and become the cheapest new Nissan you can buy, electric or otherwise.

The Electric Car Grant question nobody has asked yet for the Nissan PIXO

Here's something worth watching, and we'll say plainly that this is our analysis rather than anything Nissan has stated.

The UK's Electric Car Grant has been open since 15 July 2025, runs until 31 March 2030 and is funded to the tune of £2bn. It pays up to £3,750 (Band 1) or £1,500 (Band 2) off eligible EVs priced at or under £37,000. The band you land in depends on sustainability criteria: where and how the car and its battery are manufactured, plus warranty and range. It's why the Sunderland-built LEAF takes the full £3,750, and why the MICRA splits down the middle: the 52kWh gets Band 1, the 40kWh gets Band 2.

A Slovenia-built PIXO would need its own assessment. If it qualified at Band 1, an £18,000 car becomes a £14,250 car, which would be remarkable for a new EV with a real boot and a warranty. At Band 2 it's £16,500. If it doesn't qualify, £18,000 is simply the price.

Nothing has been confirmed either way. But it's the single number that will decide whether the PIXO is interesting or genuinely disruptive, and it's the first thing we'll be checking on 23 September.

Why revive the PIXO name at all?

It's a fair question. The original Pixo was a badge-engineered budget car that lasted four years and is remembered, where it's remembered at all, as the answer to a pub quiz question.

But "Pixo" has something most new nameplates don't: existing search demand. Thousands of people type it into Google every month. It's short, it's pronounceable in every European language, it isn't already trademarked by someone else, and it maps straight onto "pixel" for a brand that wants its city car to read as digital and playful rather than cheap.

Nissan has form here. It brought back the LEAF name for a car sharing nothing but a badge with the 2010 original, and that one just won Auto Express Car of the Year. Reviving a name is cheaper than building one.

Want to know first?

The full reveal lands on 23 September 2026. If you'd like us to let you know when the PIXO can be ordered at Chorley Nissan:

• Register your interest in the new Nissan PIXO
• Browse the Nissan electric range
• Read why the Nissan LEAF was named Car of the Year 2026
• Value your current car in 30 seconds

Chorley Group has Nissan showrooms in Chorley, Preston, Burnley, Blackpool, Bolton and Wigan.