Nissan Pixo Revealed: The Small Electric Car Built to a Price

Nissan has unveiled the Pixo, its new electric city car, and the headline is not a number on a specification sheet. It is the position the car takes up. The Pixo returns Nissan to Europe's smallest class under a name the company retired 13 years ago, and it sits at the cheapest end of an electric market that has been waiting for a genuinely affordable city car. We flagged the Pixo as the reveal to watch in our autumn guide to the electric cars arriving before 2027, and it has arrived much as expected, with one large question left open.

What is in the car

The Pixo uses a 60 kW electric motor driving the front wheels and a 27.5 kWh lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery, the first LFP pack Nissan has fitted to a European model. Nissan quotes a range of up to 259 km, which is about 161 miles on the official WLTP test, placing it between the Dacia Spring at up to 250 km and the Renault Twingo E-Tech at up to 263 km, as electrive sets out in its technical breakdown. The motor produces 175 Nm of torque, and the car is a little under 3.8 metres long, so this is a town car first.

LFP batteries are worth a note for anyone comparing small EVs. They are typically cheaper to make and more tolerant of being charged to full every day than the nickel-based chemistry in bigger electric cars, and they give up some energy density in return. For a car doing short urban runs and charging at home overnight, that trade is a sensible one.

Charging and space

Nissan fits 50 kW DC rapid charging as standard across the range, along with an 11 kW onboard AC charger that also supports bidirectional charging. Nissan gives the DC charge time as 28 minutes from 15 to 80 per cent state of charge, and the more commonly quoted 10 to 80 per cent figure is likely to be about 30 minutes, in line with the related Renault and Dacia models.

Space is where a small car is usually found out, and the Pixo has an answer. Boot capacity is up to 356 litres, including a 50-litre compartment for charging cables, and it rises to 1,221 litres with the rear seats folded. There are two individually sliding seats in the back rather than a fixed bench, so you can trade rear legroom for luggage as the day demands. Nissan says the cabin accommodates four adults comfortably.

The technology, briefly

Nissan has built the cabin around Google services, with the Gemini assistant making its first appearance in a Nissan of this size, offered in 16 languages at launch. A 7-inch display sits in front of the driver and a 10-inch touchscreen handles infotainment, with adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assistance and hands-free parking fitted as standard and one-pedal driving available. Auto Express notes that three physical dials remain for the climate controls, which will please anyone who has fought a touchscreen with cold hands in January.

None of that is the reason to buy the car, and Nissan does not pretend otherwise. The pitch is a small, simple electric car that does the urban job without a large monthly bill attached.

The price question

This is the part to treat carefully, because nothing about UK pricing is confirmed yet. Nissan says market-specific prices and pre-order information will be announced "from December onwards". For scale, the related Renault Twingo E-Tech starts at about 19,990 euros in Europe.

The UK expectation is lower than that. Auto Express reckons the Pixo needs to start somewhere between £18,000 and £20,000 to be competitive, and some outlets report an expected UK starting figure of around £18,000 once the numbers are confirmed. Every one of those figures is an expectation, not a price, and the range matters more than any single number in it.

Grant eligibility is the reason the £20,000 mark is worth watching. The Electric Car Grant comes in two bands, £3,750 and £1,500, for cars priced at £37,000 or below, with a minimum official range of 100 miles as one of the entry conditions. At 161 miles the Pixo clears that bar easily, and a car at £18,000 would sit a long way inside the price ceiling, though Nissan has to apply for each model to be approved and there is no guarantee until it appears on the official list. Our running list of eligible models is where that will show up first.

What it means for UK buyers

The Pixo is built at Renault's Novo Mesto plant in Slovenia, alongside the Twingo E-Tech and the Dacia Spring, and Nissan is responsible for the design rather than the engineering underneath. The first deliveries are scheduled for early 2027, so this is a car for next year's shopping list rather than this year's.

Read between the numbers and the point is plain. There are now several credible small electric cars in Europe sharing one set of mechanical parts, and they are competing on badge and styling rather than on range. That competition is good for anyone shopping in the class, which is why the case for a small EV in town keeps getting stronger, and it is where the electric market is finding its cheapest new entries.

The honest summary is that the Pixo changes nothing about what a small electric car can do, and it does not need to. It competes on price, and the price is not published until December. Anyone weighing one up is really choosing between the Pixo, the Twingo, the Spring and the Chinese models arriving in the same bracket, and our segment-by-segment reading of the market is the place to start that comparison.