2017 Nissan Micra hot hatch tuned by Nismo on Australia’s wishlist

A NISMO version of the all-new Nissan Micra is looking more likely every day. And even though Australia is likely to skip a generation of Nissan’s city car, there’s still a glimmer of hope the proposed hot hatch could make its way to Australia.

Nissan Australia told Wheels it is yet to rule out taking the new Micra, saying it continues to look for options to replace the uncompetitive outgoing model.

That would pave the way for a Nismo variant, as envisaged above, to come to our shores to provide a more affordable offering than the $299,000 Nismo GT-R.

Even if the boggo Micra doesn’t come, there’s technically nothing to stop the Nismo version arriving on its own. Speaking in general terms, Nissan Australia says it “always considers all available options to be open”. However, viability of any standalone variant would be subject to a lot of factors, not least the Australian homologation process.

Still, you can never have enough hot hatches, which seems to be the mindset at the Renault-Nissan Alliance.

In a recent interview with British car magazine Auto Express, Renault Group product planning and programs vice-president Bruno Ancelin dropped hints about Nismo extending its range to the Micra to complement the Renault Clio RS 220.

“We are looking for synergies with Nismo … we could probably look to synergies to help each other. This is a key activity that we have inside the Alliance.”

“They [Nissan] have the Nismo, but they have no Micra Nismo, and we have the Renault Sport Clio.”

Ancelin’s comments backed up those by Nismo program manager Bob Laishley, who told Wheels in July that a small Nismo, possibly based on the next generation Micra and/or Pulsar, was a high chance.

“For sure we’re looking at working in that area. I would like to do something in that space.”

Nissan’s performance sub-brand has dabbled with the Micra before.

In 2013 it put out a cosmetically enhanced version of the dour little hatch (called the March in Japan), with lower suspension, 16-inch alloys wrapped in low-profile tyres and an aggressive aero kit that was in danger of making it look decent.

Nismo won’t have to try too hard to make the new version look good, and with its pledge to ensure all modifications will be performance based and not just glorified bodykits, it’s easy to see why there’s so much anticipation.