Nissan has drawn the digital canvas of the renewed Kicks. The compact crossover is not only put in a new packaging, Nissan also implements a series of technical changes.
A quick look back. The Kicks is a compact crossover that was first announced at the São Paulo International Motor Show in 2014. Nissan then conjured the Kicks Concept out of the hat, a free production-ready concept car whose production version was presented at the same motor show two years later. The Kicks, which is also marketed in the United States, is based on a basis that we know from, among others, the Micra.
Interestingly, the latter is not always the case. The Kicks has been sold in India since 2018, but is there on a completely different technical basis. The platform of the Indian Kicks hides the platform that is used by the Duster and the Russian Renault Kaptur (with a K). It is the international, original variant of the Kicks that has now been placed on the cutting table.
The renewed Kicks, which is making its world debut in Thailand, gets an almost completely new muzzle where not only a considerably larger grille and new bumpers, but also completely new headlights determine the image. The viewers are a lot flatter than the original ones. Although the shape of the rear lights remains intact, their interpretation changes. The units now have LED technology. The modifications that Nissan makes to the interior are much more subtle. The Kicks gets an updated multimedia system whose 8-inch diameter screen is slightly larger than the 7-inch measuring model before the facelift.
So much for the appearance adjustments. The technical changes are perhaps even more interesting. For example, the renewed Kicks with its length of 4.29 meters is 5 mm shorter than the previous one thanks to its new bumpers, but more striking is that the wheelbase of this sharpened crossover has changed. Where the distance between the front and rear axles in the original international Kicks was 2.62 meters, the wheelbase in the redesigned Kicks was 5 mm shorter. A comparison with the Indian Kicks: that cheaper variant is 4.38 meters long and has a wheelbase of 2.67 meters.
e-Power
The Kicks benefits from the arrival of what Nissan has christened e-Power, a system used in the Note and Serena, among others. In this form, the Kicks simply has a petrol engine on board, a 79 hp and 103 Nm strong 1.2-liter three-cylinder. That petrol engine is in no way directly responsible for the drive of the wheels. This is because the motor serves as a generator that supplies current to the electric motor via a small battery pack. The electric motor has an output of 129 hp and 260 Nm, it is this unit that drives the wheels. The small battery pack has a capacity of 1.57 kWh. This system is also slightly different from the version that Nissan uses in the Note in Japan: that hatchback is a four-wheel drive thanks to the installation of a second, about 5 hp electric motor on the rear axle.
The absolute top version of the Kicks is at least well in his stuff in Thailand. The Kicks is packed in its most luxurious form with things like adaptive cruise control, an automatic braking system, blind spot detection and even gets cameras on both the front and rear. The Kicks e-Power in Thailand has a starting price of approximately € 26,650. The top version will be sold for around € 30,230. In Thailand, where cars are relatively pricey, that’s not a crazy price. Competitors such as the Toyota C-HR and the HR-V from Honda are selling for € 2,900 and € 1,700 more respectively.