Nissan's Adorable New Hatchback Is So Cute, Puppies Want It For Christmas

In addition to providing a line of vans for Europe, Nissan is using a few of Renault's small, affordable EVs to flesh out the Japanese brand's electric range. It started with the Nissan Micra, a restyled Renault 5, and it's now followed by the Nissan Pixo, which is based on the Twingo.

While it's still clearly related to the Twingo, Nissan seems to have worked much harder to make the Pixo unique.

Fitting A Round Car With Square Styling

The Renault Twingo, aside from being unabashedly retro, is also extremely curvy. The lights are cheerful half circles, and every panel is smooth and round. The rear window and its housing don't have a single straight line.

This undoubtedly presented a challenge for Nissan designers who decided to lean into the Pixo's name, and give it pixel-inspired square design cues. In fact, the task was basically the inverse of that for the Nissan Micra, which applied cutesy circular cues to the chisled Renault 5.

In the end, though, Nissan was far more successful with the Pixo's design. The flattened, snub nose and squared headlights give it a punky, broad bulldog vibe distinct from the Pikachu-like Twingo. The square-ness is emphasized by accent lines and cavities along the leading edge of the hood, which also hides a debossed Pixo logo. Even the lower grille opening is made up of little squares, and the panel to hide where the tow hook goes is a square. Nissan also managed to flatten the tail of the Twingo for its Pixel and make it flush with the new square taillights.

The new styling works well with the flat roofline and raked windshield. There's still no hiding the French roots altogether, though. The rear window is too distinct not to be noticed, and would've been expensive to change. The flanks are also still a bit curvy. But at a glance, it looks more like its own cute thing, and not a Twingo in a ill-fitting costume. Speaking of cute, Nissan has also incorporated cute smiling pixels in the lights, giving it another special touch you won't find on the French model.

What also makes the Pixo a more successful design compared to the Micra, is that Nissan actually changed up the interior. The Micra's interior is nearly identical to the Renault 5's, save for a slightly different upholstery on the dash. The Pixo does away with the Twingo's upper dash panel entirely. Rather than a lozenge-shaped panel to echo the round exterior, the Pixo's dash panel is like an elongated hexagon with pointy ends.

Those pointy ends also feature the two horizontal lines and three vertical lines that represent the numbers 2 and 3 in Japanese, which are pronounced "nee" and "san" like the brand. Some Twingo bits remain, such as the round lower dash panel and door panels, but the effort is still clear and has helped differentiate the Nissan.   

What's Under The Skin?

Unsurprisingly, all the mechanical parts of the Pixo are identical to the Twingo. It has the same 27.5-kWh battery pack powering an 80-horsepower motor under the hood. As such, it's not a long-range vehicle, nor a fast vehicle. Range is estimated at 161 miles on the generous WLTP cycle, which is ever so slightly less than the Twingo's 163 miles. On the American EPA test cycle, that range would likely be below 150 miles.

Nissan didn't give a 0–60 mph time, nor a top speed, but they should be basically the same as the Twingo's 12.1-second time and 81-mph top speed. It also only supports 50-kW DC fast charging, but will still get an 80% charge in about half an hour thanks to the tiny battery.

The Pixo will go on sale in Europe early next year. Pricing hasn't been announced, but it will probably be roughly the same as for the Twingo. Right now, the Twingo starts at €15,870, which comes to just $18,073 at current exchange rates.