FiestaST
Honorary Master
Compact SUV won't look 'too much like the last one', claims design boss
Nissan will replace its popular Juke crossover supermini with a car that’s equally bold and distinctive to look at, and yet quite different from the outgoing version.
Having been designed at Nissan’s London studio, the car is being readied for a motor show debut within months and will enter production in 2019.
In an exclusive interview with Autocar, Nissan’s global design boss, Alfonso Albaisa, said the second-generation Juke “doesn’t look too much like the last one”, adding: “It doesn’t look like IMx [the electric crossover concept unveiled at Tokyo last year] or new Leaf, either. It’s an urban meteor with a nasty attitude.”
Albaisa quashed a rumour that the Juke replacement had been reviewed and sent back for a redesign. He said: “[The Juke] is certainly coming soon. But it didn’t get ‘sent back’. I’m not sure where that story came from. It’s a very cool car and it still has all of its attitude.”
The first-generation Juke was introduced at the Geneva motor show in 2010 and helped boost the popularity of supermini-sized crossovers. In terms of sales, that class grew tenfold across Europe between 2010 and 2016, and by 2022 it is expected to double in size from its 2016 level of 1.13 million units.
Juke sales have exceeded 100,000 units a year in Europe four times during its life cycle, and the styling of the British-built car was considered an important contributor to that.
“Our job was easier with the first one, because there was nothing else like it,” Albaisa told Autocar. “And that car’s success was so huge even given how polarising it looked. The second one couldn’t be derivative or evolutionary and still be a Juke. We’d almost have to change its name to ‘Nancy’, otherwise.”
The new Juke is likely to be built on a stretched version of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance’s V-platform, as used by the Renault Clio and Nissan Micra. It is expected to shun the naturally aspirated petrol engines that have accounted for much of its sales volume so far. Instead, the upcoming Juke will use the 898cc three-cylinder and 1197cc four-cylinder turbo motors found in the current Micra and Qashqai. Those engines produce between 89bhp and 114bhp.
A 1.5-litre 109bhp diesel is likely to be offered, too, with four-wheel drive kept for automatic versions higher up the range.
Albaisa wouldn’t confirm whether the second-gen Juke would be previewed by a show car, in the same way that the Qazana concept displayed at the Geneva motor show in 2009 was used to test the water for the production version that followed. Given the riskiness of the original Juke’s styling, and how well established the car has become, it’s likely that Nissan will maximise the impact of the unveiling of the second-generation variant by keeping its looks under wraps until the last moment.
https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/second-gen-nissan-juke-due-2019-radical-styling
Nissan will replace its popular Juke crossover supermini with a car that’s equally bold and distinctive to look at, and yet quite different from the outgoing version.
Having been designed at Nissan’s London studio, the car is being readied for a motor show debut within months and will enter production in 2019.
In an exclusive interview with Autocar, Nissan’s global design boss, Alfonso Albaisa, said the second-generation Juke “doesn’t look too much like the last one”, adding: “It doesn’t look like IMx [the electric crossover concept unveiled at Tokyo last year] or new Leaf, either. It’s an urban meteor with a nasty attitude.”
Albaisa quashed a rumour that the Juke replacement had been reviewed and sent back for a redesign. He said: “[The Juke] is certainly coming soon. But it didn’t get ‘sent back’. I’m not sure where that story came from. It’s a very cool car and it still has all of its attitude.”
The first-generation Juke was introduced at the Geneva motor show in 2010 and helped boost the popularity of supermini-sized crossovers. In terms of sales, that class grew tenfold across Europe between 2010 and 2016, and by 2022 it is expected to double in size from its 2016 level of 1.13 million units.
Juke sales have exceeded 100,000 units a year in Europe four times during its life cycle, and the styling of the British-built car was considered an important contributor to that.
“Our job was easier with the first one, because there was nothing else like it,” Albaisa told Autocar. “And that car’s success was so huge even given how polarising it looked. The second one couldn’t be derivative or evolutionary and still be a Juke. We’d almost have to change its name to ‘Nancy’, otherwise.”
The new Juke is likely to be built on a stretched version of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance’s V-platform, as used by the Renault Clio and Nissan Micra. It is expected to shun the naturally aspirated petrol engines that have accounted for much of its sales volume so far. Instead, the upcoming Juke will use the 898cc three-cylinder and 1197cc four-cylinder turbo motors found in the current Micra and Qashqai. Those engines produce between 89bhp and 114bhp.
A 1.5-litre 109bhp diesel is likely to be offered, too, with four-wheel drive kept for automatic versions higher up the range.
Albaisa wouldn’t confirm whether the second-gen Juke would be previewed by a show car, in the same way that the Qazana concept displayed at the Geneva motor show in 2009 was used to test the water for the production version that followed. Given the riskiness of the original Juke’s styling, and how well established the car has become, it’s likely that Nissan will maximise the impact of the unveiling of the second-generation variant by keeping its looks under wraps until the last moment.
https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/second-gen-nissan-juke-due-2019-radical-styling
Last edited:
