Nissan Micra & Sunny Discontinued: What’s The Reason?

Nissan’s India website has just two cars listed now

• Nissan Micra and Sunny discontinued as the two couldn’t be upgraded for BS6 norms.

• Nissan to launch a 1.3-litre turbo-petrol Kicks soon.

• A sub-4m petrol-only compact SUV from Nissan also in the offing. 

• The Micra and Sunny were almost decade-old products. 

After the Terrano, Nissan India has now pulled the plug on three of its cars, removing them from its official website. These are the Micra, the Micra Active and the Sunny. According to the website, Nissan now sells only two models from completely different spectrums: the Kicks compact SUV and the GT-R supercar. The Sunny and Micra range have been ageing for long and the BS6 norms were the final nail in their coffin. The Micra, for reference, was launched almost a decade ago, in 2010; and the Sunny was introduced the subsequent year.  

The cars in question couldn’t make the cut for the BS6 era so Nissan had no choice but to push them out of production. The Micra was last updated with a handful of features back in 2018. It was powered by the discontinued Renault-Nissan 1.5-litre four-cylinder diesel engine that produced 65PS/160Nm and a 1.2-litre petrol unit that delivered 76PS/104Nm, mated exclusively to a CVT automatic. The diesel engine has been axed in all Renault-Nissan cars but the petrol unit lives on under the Datsun GO sibling’s hood. The Micra Active was also exclusively available with the same 1.2-litre engine.  

The Nissan Sunny was powered by a choice of 1.5-litre petrol (99PS/134Nm) and diesel engines (86PS/200Nm). Both had a 5-speed manual as standard but the petrol could be had with a CVT as well. Both the Sunny and Micra’s new-gen models are already on sale in markets like Europe and South America. However, there’s no clarity about the revival of these nameplates in India. That said, Nissan India has confirmed that it will launch a new car every year, starting with a sub-4m SUV. 

This subcompact offering is bound to play the value card by offering an enticing package with a host of features at a competitive price. You can read all about it here. Nissan will also launch a more powerful variant of the Kicks that derives power from the 1.3-litre turbo petrol engine showcased at the Auto Expo 2020. The HR13 DDT engine churns out 156PS/254Nm and will be a replacement for the 1.5-litre diesel engine that has been removed from the Kicks portfolio.