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2011 Nissan Micra To Debut At Geneva

NISSAN HAS CONFIRMED today that it will unveil its new global compact car, first revealed in sketches in October, at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show.

Touted as the successor to the current generation Micra small car, the global car will be built on


NISSAN HAS CONFIRMED today that it will unveil its new global compact car, first revealed in sketches in October, at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show.

Touted as the successor to the current generation Micra small car, the global car will be built on Nissan's new V-platform, with production to be carried out in China, India and Thailand.

Nissan says its V-platform has been developed to maximise the car's compatibility with the localisation requirements of different global markets. The Japanese carmaker has over 150 countries in its sights.

"We are aiming to generate new values with smart new ideas," Vincent Cobee, Project Leader for the new global car. "For me, this was like confronting the very future of Nissan.

"The fact that we will not launch these cars from Japan, Europe or the US will have absolutely no impact on their quality. Our proven, global high quality production system has guaranteed world-class standards."

Cobee said that Nissan - the second biggest carmaker in Japan - is aiming to build over 1,000,000 of its new global compact cars each year.

"And why not?" Nissan's former Chief Engineer Noritaka Tsuru said. "I'm sure customers will love the car. They will be attracted by its fun, stress-free city driving and low cost of ownership."

Nissan has been tight-lipped about the new car's technical details, but there are some clues however about what we might expect under the bonnet.

Early last year, Nissan announced the development of a new dual injector system for use in small capacity engines.

Then, in August, Nissan engineer Tetsuya Takahashi said that the carmaker is investigating a return to forced induction, applying turbochargers to small capacity engines to compensate for the drop in displacement.

The new small car is scheduled to go on sale in Thailand from March this year, filtering out to other markets in the following months.

There is no word yet on an Australian debut, but with Thailand being a right-hand-drive market, a local launch should not be far away.

Click here to read TMR’s review of the 2009 Nissan Micra

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