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Spotlight CONSUMER EV
NISSAN Pixo
Buddy- light
THE NISSAN PIXO EV
A 1980s Name Reborn as a 2027 City Car β Big Personality, Tiny Everything Else
Full specs, honest jokes, and a look at how Nissan’s cheap-and-cheerful comeback stacks up against the budget-EV pile-up it’s driving straight into.
Wait, Didn’t We Already Have One of These?
Yes. The original Nissan Pixo launched in 2009, ran on petrol, made 68 horsepower on a good day, and was to put it kindly, a rebadged Suzuki Alto that nobody particularly fell in love with. Nissan quietly let the name retire, presumably hoping everyone would forget.
Sixteen years later, Nissan has reached back into the archive, dusted off the badge, and reattached it to a completely different car: a battery-electric city runabout built on Renault’s AmpR Small platform, sharing its bones with the Renault Twingo E-Tech Electric. In other words, the Pixo name is back, but everything underneath it has been swapped out a bit like keeping your childhood nickname long after you’ve become an entirely different person.
Nissan says the new Pixo will be “small in size, yet big in personality,” which is exactly the kind of thing a press release says about a car whose main selling point is that it costs less than a second-hand hatchback with 80,000 miles on the clock.
Full Specifications
Nissan hasn’t published an official spec sheet yet the full reveal lands on 23 September 2026 but because the Pixo is mechanically a Renault Twingo in a different outfit, we can say with reasonable confidence what’s under the skin:
| Specifications | Figure |
| Segment | A-segment city car β the automotive equivalent of a studio flat |
| Platform | Renault’s AmpR Small architecture, shared with the Renault Twingo E-Tech Electric |
| Length / width / height | 3,789 mm / 1,720 mm / 1,491 mm β small enough to forget where you parked it, in a good way |
| Wheelbase | 2,493 mm |
| Motor | Single front-mounted motor, 82 PS (81 hp) / 60 kW, 175 Nm |
| Battery | 27.5 kWh LFP (lithium iron phosphate) β no giant pack, no giant bill |
| Range (WLTP) | Up to 263 km (163 miles) |
| AC charging | 6.6 kW standard (10β100% in ~4h 15m); optional 11 kW pack (10β100% in ~2h 35m) |
| DC fast charging | Optional, up to 50 kW (10β80% in about 30 minutes) |
| 0β62 mph | Not yet confirmed, but expect low-double-digit seconds β this is a shopping trolley, not a sprinter |
| Build location | Renault’s Novo Mesto plant, Slovenia β right alongside its Twingo twin |
| On sale | Reveal 23 September 2026; showrooms from first half of 2027 |
| Estimated starting price | Around Β£17,000βΒ£18,000 (UK) / under β¬20,000 (EU) / under $25,000 (indicative US-market framing) |
| Design language | V-shaped grille, rounded LED headlights β Nissan calls it “small in size, big in personality” |
Figures are best-available estimates based on the shared Renault Twingo E-Tech Electric platform, pending Nissan’s official September 23, 2026 reveal.
What’s It Actually Like to Live With?
On paper, the Pixo is not trying to impress anyone at a traffic light. 81 horsepower and a 27.5 kWh battery are numbers that would embarrass a mid-range e-bike enthusiast. But that’s rather the point: this is a car engineered around one job, nipping around a city, fitting into a parking space designed for cars from 1995, and costing as little as physically possible while still being new, under warranty, and free of the previous owner’s regrets.
The 163-mile WLTP range sounds modest next to a Tesla, but for a car whose natural habitat is the school run, the supermarket car park, and the daily commute, it’s more than enough and the smaller battery means a smaller bill both at the dealership and at the plug.
β Charging at home on a 7 kW wallbox will comfortably top it up overnight.
β The optional DC fast-charging package turns a coffee break into a 10β80% top-up.
βΒ The LFP battery chemistry trades ultimate energy density for durability and a lower risk of drama, sensible, if not exciting.
The Competition Is… Everywhere
Here’s the awkward bit for Nissan: the sub-Β£20,000 EV segment it’s re-entering has quietly become the most crowded corner of the entire car market. The Pixo isn’t just up against one rival, it’s wading into a genuine scrum of budget electric hatchbacks, most of which got there first.
| Nissan Pixo | Leapmotor T03 | BYD Dolphin Surf (Active) | Dacia Spring | Renault 5 E-Tech | |
| Battery | 27.5 kWh | 37.3 kWh | 30 kWh | 26.8 kWh | 40β52 kWh |
| WLTP range | 163 mi | 165 mi | 137 mi | 140 mi | 190β250 mi |
| Power | 82 PS / 81 hp | 95 hp | 88 hp | 45β65 hp | 120β150 hp |
| Starting price (approx.) | Β£17,000βΒ£18,000 | Β£12,995βΒ£15,995 | Β£18,650 | from ~Β£15,000 | from ~Β£23,000 |
| Fast-charge ceiling | 50 kW (optional) | 48 kW | 65 kW | 30 kW | 80β100 kW |
| Build date | Slovenia | Poland | Hungary/China | Romania/China | France |
Prices and specs are approximate, correct as of September 2026, and will move around as trims, incentives and exchange rates do.
Leapmotor T03
The T03 is the current value champion of this class, undercutting the Pixo on price while out-ranging it slightly. It looks like a cartoon character had a baby with a Fiat Panda, and its infotainment system has a reputation for being about as intuitive as assembling flatpack furniture with the instructions in the wrong language. But at under Β£13,000 with incentives, it’s hard to argue with the maths. See a snapshot of the LEAPMOTOR T03 in the Plugged In Ride catalogue, here.
BYD’s smallest EV costs a little more than the Pixo is expected to, but backs it up with a more sophisticated cabin, a longer-range option, and one of the more generous warranties in the business. If the Pixo is betting on nostalgia and a trusted badge, the Dolphin Surf is betting on tech-for-your-money and so far, that bet has been working. Read about BYD inthe Plugged In Ride , here.
Dacia Spring
Still the segment’s bargain-basement regular, the Spring remains the car to beat on price alone. It’s less powerful, less refined, and less equipped than the Pixo is expected to be, but it got to the “cheapest EV in Europe” title first and has no intention of giving it up quietly.
Effectively the Pixo’s stylish, better-funded cousin built by the same corporate family, but aimed at buyers with a bit more to spend and a lot more visual flair on their wish list. If the Pixo is the sensible sibling, the Renault 5 is the one who gets invited to more parties. Read the Plugged In Ride review here.
The Verdict
The new Nissan Pixo isn’t trying to reinvent the electric car, it’s trying to make one that’s cheap, easy, and unthreatening enough that someone’s first EV doesn’t feel like a leap of faith. Whether badge loyalty and a familiar V-shaped grille are enough to win buyers away from a segment now stuffed with credible, often cheaper alternatives is the real question Nissan will have to answer come 2027.
Bottom line:Β a familiar name wrapped around a French chassis, aimed squarely at buyers who just want an affordable, no-drama way into electric motoring and arriving into a fight that’s already well underway.
