The Micra has been a great seller for Nissan since it was introduced in 1982. My daughter’s first car in 2007 was a Micra and it was a great car for a young learner driver.
That Micra was a black one and when I tested the new electric version of the Micra a few weeks back, the car I drove from Parkwest to Cavan for the official launch was also black. But when I picked up my test car last week from Nissan’s Irish headquarters in Parkwest, the colour was an attractive shade of Rebel Red with a black roof and black trims.
Initially the Micra was intended to replace the Nissan Cherry, the company’s competitor in the supermini sector, as the Cherry model had progressively become larger with each successive generation. In the early part of this century Nissan were selling well over 100,000 version of the Micra every year in Europe. Globally over 1.6 million versions of the Micra were sold.
After 2007 some of the generation upgrades in what Nissan call the ‘bubble era,’ referring to their headlights, were not to everybody’s liking and annual sales figures dropped dramatically. However, Nissan has done a great job on the design of new electric version of the Micra.
In 2010 Nissan were the first company to introduce the first mass-market electric car to the Irish market with their Leaf. At that time, the Leaf had a range of around 200km and early adopters seems to be happy with that figure. A new version of the Leaf is on the way, and it will have a range of 620km. It’s currently on the assembly lines in Sunderland and should be with us in the Autumn. Early next year Nissan will have an electric version of their Juke.
As I have often said on these pages previously, the first two questions I am always asked by neighbours or friends when they see me driving an electric car are range and price. Prices start at €25,995 for the entry level Engage version and the claimed range with the small battery is 317km and 416km with the larger 52kWh battery.
Reaching those certified WLTP figures can be difficult and much depends on the weather and the way a car is driven. Last week I drove very steadily and after a full charge with the larger battery I got to 390km, which I was happy with.
The headlamps are really cute and at the back you get circular lights. They look great at night.
Inside, the décor is bight with orange stitching on the brightly coloured seats. Leg room for the back seat passengers will depend on the positioning of the driver and front seat passenger. The boot size is average for car of this size, officially 326 litres and no spare wheel, which is the norm nowadays. No Frunk either.
The car handles really well. I liked it and so did my daughter. Just a pity the range is not a bit better with the larger battery. However, I suppose this Micra is meant for short commutes and urban driving.
The Micra is built on the same platform as the Renault 5 EV and is almost identical in price and range. And it has some of the nice Renault touches where the car locks when you walk away and the doors will unlock when you approach the car, provided the key fob is in your pocket or handbag.
It’s still an ideal car for first-time buyers or empty nesters, provided you are willing to make the big switch to electric.
