New Nissan Pixo Is Almost As Cute As The Renault Twingo It's Based On

The Renault-Nissan alliance may not be as strong as it once was, but the partnership is still resulting in some great vehicles being made. Last year Nissan revealed its new Micra, a compact electric hatchback based on the fantastic Renault 5, and now the Japanese automaker's designers have worked their magic on another wonderful Renault. Enter the new Nissan Pixo, based on the fourth-generation Twingo.

Though it's not be quite as adorable as the Renault, the Pixo is still cute as hell, especially when you compare it to the Suzuki Alto–based Pixo that was sold from 2009 to 2013. The new Pixo will be Nissan's smallest offering in Europe, about a foot shorter than the completely absurd-looking Juke EV, and it has been developed specifically for that market. Nissan says the Pixo shows off its "faster, more agile approach to vehicle development" that can be leveraged thanks to the Renault partnership — really, it just shows how to do a successful rebadge without it feeling too lazy or cynical.

Up front is where you'll see the most differences to the Twingo. Instead of the Renault's froggy face, the Pixo has a flatter front end with a taller, rounder hood, squared-off headlights with a pixelated motif, and more black plastic in the lower bumper where there are some small pixel-shaped air inlets (and a hidden smiley face). 

Nissan

The taillights echo the shape of the headlights, and the lower half of the tailgate and rear bumper are more angular in design. The plastic surround for the rear window has the Pixo name stamped into the sides, and there's an array of little squares below the wiper. Nissan's been on a tear with wheel designs lately, and while the Pixo's aren't that exciting — especially not compared to the Twingo's wheels — they're still pretty good. Only real nerds will notice the final Pixo-specific detail: the different piece of plastic trim just ahead of the side mirrors. And Renault doesn't offer the Twingo in purple, so that's another point in the Pixo's camp.

It's a similar story inside. The Pixo has its own door card insert design, the upper section of the dashboard is more angular, and there's a bit less color inside, but otherwise it's pretty much identical to the Twingo. Though it's a really small car (a couple inches shorter than a Mini Cooper), the interior seems plenty versatile. The rear seats slide fore and aft and can be individually folded, the cargo area has underfloor storage, and there's a bunch of little storage cubbies throughout.

Nissan

Like the Twingo, the Pixo has a 27.5-kWh LFP battery pack that gives it a range of 161 miles on the European WLTP cycle. It can only be fast-charged at 50 kW, but because the pack is so small it'll take less than half an hour to go from 15% to 80% charge, and there's bidirectional charging capability. A single electric motor sends 80 horsepower to the front wheels, and Nissan doesn't give acceleration figures, because that doesn't really matter.

Pricing won't be announced until December, but it should be extremely cheap — the Twingo starts at less than €20,000 before any incentives. Deliveries will begin in early 2027.