Radical Nissan 20-23 concept hints at retro Micra rebirth

Nissan reckons there are plenty of Nissan’s small ‘Pike’ cars in the design – the Be-1, the Pao, the Figaro and the S-Cargo. We’re not so sure. We see instead a sort of retro-futuristic beast inspired in part by the bubbly K12 Micra. Could this preview a Micra to come?

Group-mate Renault is busy delivering a forward-looking reimagining of its iconic small car, the Renault 5, and this 20-23 looks very much like Nissan wanting a piece of the action. Certainly in silhouette and wheelbase, the 20-23 could share plenty with the Renault 5/Alpine A290, and it’s likely there’s some platform similarity underneath.

But that’s all technical, this is purely a design concept. Short of it having a hatch silhouette, there’s very little ‘practical’ about this crazy little thing. It’s all very much vented arches, inlets, pass-throughs and spoilers.

Just look at the rear windows, how they dive inward turning the C-pillar into a wing, like the latest Ford Supervan. Speaking of the Supervan, which has also been transformed into a Pikes Peak-conquering machine, there's an element of that thinking here in 20-23 as well. Though it’s all aggression for the most part, those circular LED elements are what make us think ‘Micra’.

The interior too is very much race-inspired, with intricate platform-hugging bucket seats, harnesses and a futuristic racey steering wheel with plenty of controls for adjusting the car’s various systems. It’s as much inspired by Formula E as it is, so Nissan says, the sim racing setups they inspire.

“The 20-23 Concept that they [the NDE team] designed is a compact hatchback which is strongly influenced by the online racing world,” said Alfonso Albaisa, Nissan’s Senior Vice President for global design.

“I love the story it tells about how the worlds of modern city living, online gaming and zero emissions mobility intersect.”