Nissan Kicks Spied Testing In India For The First Time; Launch In Early 2019

The 2019 Kicks will be Nissan’s first new launch in the mass-market space in India in six years, after the Terrano

Nissan is prepping for the launch of its upcoming Hyundai Creta rival, the Kicks, in India. In fact, the India-spec Kicks has been spied for the first time in India, ahead of its expected launch in January 2019.

Nissan introduced the Kicks in Brazil in 2016 before launching it in USA, China and UAE the following year. This global-spec Kicks is based on the Micra’s V-platform, but the India-spec model will be underpinned by the B0 platform.

The B0 platform also underpins SUVs such as the Renault Duster (first- and second-gen), Captur and the Nissan Terrano. The vehicles based on the B0 platform measure over 4.3m and hence, we expect the India-spec Kicks to be nearly as big as the Captur. And, therefore, it is expected to be bigger than the global Kicks too. Although the test mule of the India-spec Kicks is camouflaged, the styling appears largely similar to the international model. Here’s how the Kicks compares against the Renault Captur dimensionally.

	Nissan Kicks (Global)	Renault Captur
Length	4,295mm	4,329mm (+34mm)
Width	1,760mm	1,813mm (+53mm)
Height	1,590mm	1,619mm (+29mm)
Wheelbase	2,620mm	2,673mm (+53mm)
Ground Clearance	200mm	210mm (+10mm)

The Nissan Kicks for India is expected to be feature loaded, like the model overseas. It is likely to inherit features from the global model like up to six airbags, stability control, 360-degree camera, analog+digital instrument cluster and a 7-inch infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Mechanically, it will be powered by the 1.5-litre diesel (110PS/245Nm) and the 1.5-litre petrol (106PS/142Nm) engine, same as the Captur.

Both the petrol and diesel engines will come with a manual transmission. It will be interesting to see if Nissan offers a CVT on the petrol Kicks, like Renault does on the Duster. While Renault does offer an AMT with the Duster, it remains to be seen if Nissan opts for that. The Renault-Nissan alliance also has a dual-clutch automatic transmission, which it can offer with the diesel engine, like it does in Europe.

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We expect the Nissan Kicks to be priced competitively with its base price undercutting Rs 10 lakh (ex-showroom). It will primarily go up against the segment bestseller, Hyundai Creta, along with rivals like the Renault Captur and the upcoming Kia SP Concept-based SUV.

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