Nissan Kicks to be built and sold in the UK: full details on the hybrid SUV
Previously reserved for emerging markets, Nissan’s small SUV is confirmed for the UK, and will bring £170m investment to North East
The foreign-market Nissan Kicks will soon be on sale in the UK and Europe, its maker has confirmed. The small e-Power hybrid SUV will sit alongside the third-generation, electric-only Juke in Nissan’s range and be built in the same Sunderland factory.
First launched as a concept car at the Sao Paulo Motor Show in 2014, the Kicks entered production two years later – primarily for Latin American customers. It replaced the Juke in the US and Canada in 2018, but has never been offered in Europe or the UK.
The second-generation car, which will be built in Sunderland as part of a £170m investment, was revealed in 2024. Models built elsewhere are currently sold in global markets including Brazil, Argentina and Mexico, as well as Japan, the US and the Middle East. However, while some of these countries get a choice of 1.0-litre and 2.0-litre petrol engines, it’s understood UK cars will feature Nissan’s pioneering e-Power hybrid technology.
Assuming the Kicks will inherit a similar system to the one found in the current Juke, we can expect the crossover to produce around 140bhp courtesy of a 1.2-litre three-cylinder petrol engine and an electric motor directly feeding the front wheels – good for 0-62mph in around 10 seconds. However, the true advantage of the e-Power tech will be a huge boost in fuel economy; like-for-like, the hybrid Juke is capable of around 10mpg more than the pure-petrol car, as well as boasting significantly lower CO2 emissions.
The newcomer is slightly longer than the outgoing Juke (4.21 vs 4.37 metres), but the two cars both compete in the popular small SUV segment. And with the next-generation Juke going electric-only, Nissan will hope to continue its predecessor’s success by offering the petrol hybrid Kicks in the UK. The new model will sit beneath the Qashqai and larger X-Trail in Nissan’s expansive SUV range.
A hugely popular model globally, the Kicks has sold more than 1.8 million units across 70 countries in the decade since its launch. It’ll be the 10th model to be built in Sunderland since the plant opened in 1986, although Nissan recently signed what has been described as a “non-binding Memorandum of Understanding” with Chery, which could see production of the Chinese firm's cars beginning in Sunderland as early as next year.
The plan, announced in June, is still to be finalised, but – along with UK production of the Kicks – would help Nissan’s plant come close to its half a million-vehicle annual production capacity. Last year, the company built just 273,174 cars at its facility in the North East of England.
Sunderland will continue to assemble the hybrid Qashqai, as well as the new Kicks SUV, plus the Juke and Leaf EVs – the latter of which won the 2026 Auto Express Car of the Year title, as well as our Small Company Car and Affordable Electric Car awards, back in July. The Qashqai, Juke and Leaf are all available to buy through the Auto Express Buy a Car service now, with average savings of more than £5,000.
News of the Kicks arriving in the UK comes alongside confirmation of the new Renault Twingo-based Pixo electric city car, set to be revealed in full next week. That model, developed as part of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, will be built at the Novo Mesto plant in Slovenia.
Nissan hasn’t confirmed when production of the Kicks will start, but with the Leaf only just coming on stream and big work needed to get next-generation Juke up to speed, it’s likely to be summer 2027 before the Kicks launches in the UK.
Specifications will be confirmed closer to the car’s on-sale date, but it’s more than likely to follow Nissan’s usual Acenta, N-Connecta and Tekna trim walk-up. Using US versions as a guide, as well as the existing Juke, we expect all cars to feature at least a 12.3-inch infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, plus LED lights and alloy wheels.
Stepping up through the range will add luxuries such as wireless phone charging, heated seats and 360-degree parking cameras, while fully digital instruments, Nissan’s ProPilot Assist and higher-end materials will be reserved for top-spec cars. The widest range of colours, and add-ons such as a two-tone roof and the biggest wheels, will feature on Tekna+ trim.
US cars come with advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) including autonomous emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian detection, alongside blind-spot monitoring, lane-departure warning and rear cross-traffic alert with emergency braking. However, a disappointing 3.5-star Latin NCAP crash-test rating doesn’t bode well for the most stringent European tests the Kicks will inevitably be subjected to when the car goes on sale here.
The outgoing Juke starts from £30,295 in e-Power Hybrid guise, although cheaper ICE-only versions with manual and automatic gearboxes are available. However, given that the Kicks was initially designed for emerging markets such as Latin America, there’s a chance Nissan may look to lower the entry point to help it compete with newer rivals such as the Dacia Duster and Citroen C3 Aircross, as well as competitive Chinese models like the MG ZS and Jaecoo 5.
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