{"id":239640,"date":"2023-09-25T14:49:01","date_gmt":"2023-09-25T14:49:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automotobuzz.com\/?p=239640"},"modified":"2023-09-25T14:49:01","modified_gmt":"2023-09-25T14:49:01","slug":"nissan-goes-all-alpine-with-new-20-23-ev-concept","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automotobuzz.com\/news-features\/nissan-goes-all-alpine-with-new-20-23-ev-concept\/","title":{"rendered":"Nissan goes all Alpine with new 20-23 EV concept"},"content":{"rendered":"

New EV marks 20 years of Nissan's London design studio – and rivals A290_\u03b2 as a city-friendly hot rod<\/h2>\n

By PH Staff \/ Monday, 25 September 2023 \/ Loading comments<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the world this week, Nissan is busying itself with the launch of the new and slightly more powerful Z Nismo. Over here, we get an electric concept car unveiled on a barge. But that\u2019s okay because for once the manufacturer has let its UK-based stylists cut loose and design \u2018a fun electric city car that [they\u2019d] like to drive every day in London.\u2019 Unsurprisingly, for what we assume is a bunch of twentysomething car nuts, they turned in the most balls-out, motorsport-inspired concept that could possibly be squeezed onto a three-door supermini platform. <\/p>\n

Nissan says the result – dubbed the 20-23 – is nothing more than a bit of celebratory blue-sky thinking to mark the fact that its European design studio has been located in London for 20 years. But if it looks familiar that\u2019s likely because Nissan Design Europe likely has small cars on the brain right now as it hits a downslope which ends with the introduction of the next-generation Micra. Which, it just so happens, is set to share the CMF-BEV platform that underpins the new Renault 5. And the Alpine A290. Which everyone drooled over in concept format back in the spring. <\/p>\n

The reception given to Alpine\u2019s beta-special has clearly not passed Nissan\u2019s designers by. If the 20-23 isn\u2019t a yeah-but-look-what-we-can-do rebuttal, then our name is not PistonHeads and we didn\u2019t eat too much cheese for lunch. Nissan says the colossal arches and downforce-generating rear wing and check-me-out wheels reflect \u2018both the world of online racing and [its] participation in Formula E.\u2019 Okay, sure – but it\u2019s also a three-door hot hatch with scissor doors. Take that, Dieppe. <\/p>\n

Whether or not it actually hints at the next Micra is obviously open to question. Given the conservatism that has generally marked out Nissan\u2019s supermini, we\u2019re going to say probably not. But it\u2019s increasingly clear that both the incoming Renault 5 and the Alpine A290 are going to be serious lookers – if nothing else, the 20-23 suggests that the occupants of the Nissan Design Europe are adamant that the manufacturer need not be outdone on the styling front. And with Makoto Uchida, the firm\u2019s President and CEO personally pulling the covers off in London, it couldn\u2019t have hoped for a bigger wig to sell the idea to\u2026<\/p>\n\n