Nissan Micra successor points to future projects with Renault

LONDON -- Nissan’s Renault-built replacement for the Micra small car is a perfect example of how the automakers' alliance will operate going forward, the companies said.

The Micra replacement will be developed and built by Renault and share 80 percent of parts with the coming full-electric Renault 5, Renault CEO Luca de Meo said at an event on Monday to announce plans to reboot the alliance between the automakers.

The new alliance structure was reached knowing that both sides would benefit, de Meo said. This was not the case with the production of the outgoing Micra at Renault's factory in Flins, France, which was “forced on” Nissan, he said.

“It was not a very successful project,” de Meo said. “The cost, the car itself, the whole thing was not good. It came about because Nissan was forced to do something they didn’t want.”

Micra production was moved to the Flins factory from India to improve Renault's capacity utilization in France.

The Micra replacement will give Nissan a cost-effective entry into the small EV segment, de Meo said. “It’s a very competitive proposal. We didn’t force Nissan to do anything; it was their choice,” he said.

The Micra's successor is due in 2026. It will be built at Renault’s Douai factory in northern France, one of the three production centers forming the company’s ElectriCity industrial complex, which focuses on electric vehicles and components, including batteries. Renault will also build the full-electric Renault 5 small hatchback there, with launch scheduled for 2024.

The alliance restructuring plan persuaded Nissan to add a model it might not have sold, Nissan Chief Operating Officer Ashwani Gupta said at Monday’s announcement.

Nissan almost decided to exit the segment but when de Meo "proposed the Renault car as an iconic model for Nissan, we were able to convince our designers and teams,” Gupta said.

Nissan sold 31,105 Micras in Europe last year, according to figures from Dataforce. Earlier generations of the Micra regularly sold more than 100,000 units annually in Europe.

Renault did not start from the basis of “conventional negotiations” for the Micra production but rather on the value for both parties.

“We looked into what value it brings to Renault to share the platform and plant, and into what value it brings to Nissan not to invest in a new [small] EV,” Gupta said. “That is what we are going to change for all these high value projects.”

Production of the outgoing Micra at Flins was stopped last year, de Meo said.

Building the Micra in Flins, where Renault also produces the Zoe electric car, was not the best for option for Nissan, compared with Renault, which builds its Clio small car in Turkey to keep costs down, de Meo said. “This time Micra is new-technology led and it’s at the top of our competitiveness so the numbers are OK,” he said.

The Zoe, Micra and a small number of Clios were built on the same line in Flins.

Mitsubishi sharing

Initial sketches revealed by Nissan last year of the Micra replacement show that its design will differ from the Renault 5, meaning it will not just be a rebadge along the lines of alliance partner Mitsubishi’s deal with Renault, which will build the ASX and Colt for Mitsubishi. The two cars are largely the same as the Renault Captur small and Clio, respectively.

Mitsubishi has said it needs a small EV in Europe as it seeks to rebuild its presence in the region, with a sales target of 130,000 units in 2024 from 54,000 sales in 2022. That could be supplied by Renault in northern France or by Nissan in Sunderland, northeast England, where Nissan plans to build a small electric SUV to replace the Leaf compact electric car.

The Sunderland factory built previous Micra generations before output was moved to Chennai, India, to free up capacity for the Juke small crossover.