Tag Archives: Nissan

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Nissan Revives Its Playful Side with the Pike-Inspired Electric Wave

Nissan is about to dive back into the European city-car pool, and this time it’s bringing a sense of humor—and history—with it. The company’s upcoming electric runabout will be called Wave, a name that feels breezy, friendly, and intentionally un-serious. That’s fitting, because the Wave is shaping up to be Nissan’s most character-driven small car in years, blending modern EV pragmatism with a design playbook lifted straight from the brand’s late-’80s cult classics.

Due next year, the Nissan Wave will be built by Renault alongside the electric Twingo, with which it shares its basic architecture. This is less badge engineering and more personality swap: same bones, different soul. And if Nissan gets it right, the Wave could do for the city-EV segment what the original Pike cars did for Japanese kei-adjacent oddities—make people smile before they even check the spec sheet.

Pike’s Peak Nostalgia

According to Nissan Europe design boss Giovanny Arroba, the Wave will take inspiration from the brand’s legendary Pike cars—a series of retro-styled small vehicles developed by Nissan’s Pike Factory special projects group in the late 1980s and early ’90s. If that sounds niche, it is—but in the best possible way.

Cars like the Be-1, Pao, Figaro, and S-Cargo were based on the first-generation Micra and leaned hard into exaggerated 1950s design cues: exposed hinges, bold door handles, side strakes, and proportions that bordered on cartoonish. They weren’t subtle, and they weren’t meant to be. When the Be-1 debuted at the 1985 Tokyo motor show, demand was so overwhelming that Nissan had to use a lottery system to decide who got to buy one of the 10,000 cars allocated for production.

That kind of enthusiasm is exactly what modern EVs—especially affordable ones—often lack.

Same Platform, Different Vibe

Under the skin, the Wave will ride on a shortened version of Renault’s AmpR Small platform, the same architecture underpinning the new electric Twingo. That means a tidy footprint—expect the Wave to match the Twingo’s 3.79-meter length—and urban-friendly proportions that prioritize maneuverability over macho posturing.

Power comes from a 27.5-kWh lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery, sourced from CATL. LFP chemistry doesn’t win bragging rights for energy density, but it’s cheaper, more durable, and better suited to the stop-and-go life of a city car. Range is expected to land around 163 miles, mirroring the Twingo and landing squarely in the “enough for real life” category.

The payoff is price. Nissan is targeting the same sub-£20,000 sticker as the Twingo, which—these days—counts as aggressively affordable in the EV world.

Retro Without the Red Ink

The clever bit is how Nissan plans to inject Pike-inspired character without blowing the budget. The Twingo already leans into retro cues of its own, referencing the original 1990s model, which gives Nissan a forgiving canvas. Think of it as remixing nostalgia rather than starting from scratch—similar to how Nissan plans to differentiate its upcoming Micra, which is based on the Renault 5.

How far Nissan will push the Pike look remains an open question. Full-on exposed hinges and novelty detailing would be delightful but potentially costly. Still, Nissan will be watching Renault closely. Its alliance partner has found real success mining heritage with the electric Renault 5 and 4, proving that retro isn’t just an aesthetic—it’s a sales strategy.

Fast, Cheap, and (Hopefully) Fun

Beyond design, the Wave benefits from the Twingo program’s ruthless focus on efficiency. Renault claims a development time of just 21 months, aided by a reduced parts count and streamlined production. Nissan gets to piggyback on those gains, which matters because the margins on small cars—especially electric ones—are notoriously thin.

That efficiency also helps explain why Nissan is re-entering a segment it abandoned more than a decade ago. The company hasn’t sold a city car in Europe since it killed off the Indian-built Pixo in 2013. But the landscape has changed. The European Union now offers “super-credits” for small EVs, counting each one as 1.3 vehicles for emissions targets. Suddenly, small electric cars aren’t just charming—they’re strategically valuable.

A Small Car With Big Intent

The Nissan Wave won’t be fast, flashy, or long-legged. It doesn’t need to be. Its job is to make electric mobility feel approachable again—to remind buyers that EVs can be cheerful appliances rather than rolling tech demos. If Nissan successfully channels even a fraction of the Pike cars’ whimsy, the Wave could stand out in a sea of anonymous jellybeans.

In an era where so many new cars feel engineered by spreadsheet, the Wave hints at something refreshingly human. Affordable, efficient, and a little bit weird—in other words, exactly what a great city car should be.

Source: Autocar

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2024 Nissan GT-R Skyline Edition Tests the Collector Market

The Nissan GT-R has always lived in a strange limbo—too advanced to fade quietly into obscurity, too stubbornly unchanged to chase reinvention. For nearly two decades, the R35 generation carried on with incremental updates, daring the world to decide whether Godzilla was aging gracefully or simply refusing to age at all. Now, as production winds down and nostalgia starts doing what it does best, certain versions of the GT-R are inching toward collector status. Exhibit A: this 2024 GT-R Skyline Edition that just tried—and failed—to rewrite its own market value.

At a recent Cars & Bids auction, an ultra-low-mileage Skyline Edition coupe surged to an eye-watering $222,000 after 46 bids. That’s real money, and a lot of enthusiasm. It’s also not enough. The seller’s reserve remained untouched, suggesting that even a six-figure profit on paper isn’t sufficient when rarity, timing, and optimism collide.

Introduced for the 2024 model year, the Skyline Edition was Nissan’s carefully calculated nostalgia play for the U.S. market. Only 100 examples were built, each finished in Bayside Blue—a color so closely associated with the R34-generation GT-R that merely mentioning it sends certain corners of the internet into meltdown. It’s a paint choice that does most of the talking before the engine ever fires.

When new, the Skyline Edition carried an MSRP of $133,500. By modern supercar standards, that almost feels restrained, especially when you consider what Nissan bundled into the package. Mechanically, it’s the familiar R35 formula: a hand-assembled 3.8-liter twin-turbo V6 producing 573 horsepower and 467 pound-feet of torque, sent through a six-speed dual-clutch transmission and all four wheels. It’s still brutally quick, still devastatingly effective, and still more video game boss than analog sports car.

But the Skyline Edition’s real differentiator isn’t horsepower—it’s atmosphere. Open the door and you’re greeted by a Sora Blue interior that makes most other R35 cabins look positively dour. Light blue leather spreads across the dashboard, door panels, seats, steering wheel, and center console, creating a look that’s equal parts luxury lounge and concept car throwback. Carbon-fiber trim cuts through the pastel palette, reminding you that this is still very much a performance weapon, not a fashion accessory.

Nissan sweetened the deal further with a titanium exhaust system, 20-inch Rays wheels, and electronically controlled Bilstein DampTronic dampers. It’s a greatest-hits list of GT-R hardware, curated for buyers who wanted the full experience without checking the aftermarket catalog.

This particular car was originally delivered by Riverside Nissan in California and had just 80 miles on the odometer when it crossed the virtual auction block. Eighty. That’s barely enough to warm the fluids, let alone wear in a clutch. In collector terms, it’s essentially a new car with a time capsule warranty.

So why didn’t $222,000 seal the deal? Because the modern collector market is as much about belief as it is about numbers. The seller clearly believes the Skyline Edition represents a future blue-chip GT-R—one that will sit comfortably alongside the most desirable R35 variants once the dust settles and the internal-combustion era feels properly distant. The bidders, enthusiastic as they were, weren’t quite ready to make that leap.

Still, the takeaway here isn’t failure—it’s momentum. A GT-R that originally sold for $133,500 attracting bids north of $220K tells you everything you need to know about where the wind is blowing. The R35 may have overstayed its welcome in showrooms, but in the collector world, it’s just starting to make sense.

Godzilla isn’t done evolving. It’s just changing arenas.

Source: Cars & Bids

News

Nissan’s November Numbers Tell a Two-Speed Story: Strong Abroad, Stumbling at Home

If you’re looking for a single headline to sum up Nissan’s November 2025 performance, try this: The world is carrying Nissan, but Japan is dragging its heels.

Nissan Motor Co. released its latest production, sales, and export figures for November, and the data paints a picture of a company operating in two very different realities. Overseas factories are humming along well enough to keep global production nearly level, while domestic output and sales continue to slide at a worrying pace.

Production: Japan Hits the Brakes

Globally, Nissan built 257,008 vehicles in November, a 4.2-percent decline compared with last year. That’s not catastrophic, but it masks a sharp regional imbalance.

Production in Japan plunged 31.6 percent year-over-year, falling to just 41,874 vehicles. Passenger cars took the hardest hit, down more than 30 percent, while commercial vehicles weren’t spared either. For a company whose engineering identity is deeply rooted in its home market, that’s a sobering number.

Outside Japan, however, the story improves. Overseas production rose 3.9 percent to 215,134 vehicles, with China (+22 percent), the UK (+18 percent), and the U.S. (+7.1 percent) all posting solid gains. Mexico remained Nissan’s single largest production hub, despite a 17.6-percent drop for the month.

The takeaway? Nissan’s global footprint is doing exactly what it was designed to do—absorb shocks when one region falters—but the weakness at home is too large to ignore.

Sales: Japan Slumps, China Pushes Back

Sales followed a similar pattern. Global deliveries totaled 265,067 vehicles in November, down 4.9 percent from a year earlier.

Japan was again the problem child. Total domestic sales, including minivehicles, dropped 26.5 percent. Registered passenger vehicles fell off a cliff, plunging nearly 40 percent year-over-year, while minivehicles—a segment usually prized for stability—still slipped by 4.6 percent.

Across the Pacific, Nissan’s performance was steadier. North American sales declined 5.6 percent overall, with the U.S. down 7.7 percent but Mexico posting modest growth. China stood out as a bright spot, with sales climbing 10.3 percent in November, a rare win in a fiercely competitive and rapidly electrifying market.

Sales outside Japan were down just 1.5 percent, reinforcing the idea that Nissan’s international lineup still has traction—even if it’s not growing aggressively.

Exports: Fewer Ships Leaving Port

Exports from Japan added another wrinkle to the story. Total exports fell 25.1 percent in November, with Europe taking the biggest hit, down more than 30 percent. Shipments to North America ticked up slightly, but not nearly enough to offset declines elsewhere.

For the year to date, exports remain down 16.8 percent, underlining how Japan’s production slowdown is rippling outward.

Nissan’s November report doesn’t scream crisis, but it does whisper concern. Overseas plants and markets are keeping the company afloat, yet Japan’s steep declines in production and sales suggest structural issues that short-term fixes won’t solve.

In other words, Nissan isn’t losing the global race—but it’s starting several laps behind at home. And in today’s brutally competitive auto industry, that’s not a position any automaker can afford to hold for long.

Source: Nissan