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Nissan’s position as the pilgrim of Crossovers is further reinforced by the arrival of Juke. Juke breathes new spirit into the conservative B-segment of the market, giving customers a fashionable alternative to the traditional urban hatchback.

"Juke brings a sense of adventure to the car market. It’s light, nimble, urban, reactive: qualities designed to grab a younger audience.  It offers something entirely different to the traditional B-segment vehicles and cements Nissan as a car maker prepared to do something different.” Andy Palmer, Senior Vice President, Product Planning, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd

Nissan is set to transform the urban scenery… for the third time. Following in the wheel-tracks of the Murano crossover and then the flourishing Qashqai - comes its more adolescent brother, the Nissan Juke.

Juke is a unique combination of SUV and sports car style. Imagined to introduce some strength and dynamism into the small car market, Juke connects a number of seeming differences under its highly exclusive lines.

“It takes the best elements of an SUV and sports car and combines them,” says Pierre Loing, Vice President, Product Planning, Nissan Europe. “It’s roomy yet compact, robust yet dynamic and practical yet playful. These are qualities that seem to contradict each other, yet come together in Juke to create something that’s genuinely unique.”

“The design shows real optimism. By combining design elements from two genres to create a small, but striking Crossover that displays genuine confidence and style. And those are qualities we also expect to find in a Juke customer,” said Shiro Nakamura, Senior Vice President for Design and Chief Creative Officer.

The lower portion of Juke is pure SUV, with stocky wheels, wide tyres, elongated ground clearance and a muscular stance. But the top portion is a pure sports car, with a special waistline, slim visor-like side glass graphics and a coupé roofline. The coupé effect is moreover emphasised by the rear doors which have their handles hidden in the frame of the door.

Based on the Renault Nissan Alliance B platform, Juke has a 2530mm wheelbase. On front-wheel-drive versions, the suspension is by MacPherson struts at the front with a torsion beam at the rear while four-wheel-drive designs have a multi-link rear suspension moulded on the system found on Qashqai.

The engine is one of the most powerful in its class, developing 140kW (190PS) and 240 Nm. The blend of direct injection with a turbocharger gives the power and responses anticipated from a 2.5-litre engine with the economy of a smaller engine.

The second petrol engine is a newly developed version from Nissan’s trusted HR-family. Designated HR16DE, the lightweight, low-friction 16-valve unit now has a unique dual-injection system allowing finer metering of the fuel sprays for better combustion and develops 86kW (117PS). The K9K 81kW (110PS) 1.5-litre dCi common rail diesel offers excellent driveability – thanks as much to its heady 240 Nm of torque – with good economy and emissions.

The two-wheel-drive turbocharged 1.6-litre petrol engine is available with a six-speed manual, while a CVT transmission with a six-speed manual mode will be available on the range-topping all-wheel drive version of the turbo-charged petrol engine.

“Juke is not a traditional B-segment car, and that is quite deliberate. It was born in an urban environment and that is where it will spend most of its life. Fittingly, its combination of agility and toughness make it one of the most streetwise cars around.

“Juke joins Murano and Qashqai to cement Nissan’s position as the leading brand in the crossover market,” said Simon Thomas, Nissan’s European Senior Vice President for Sales and Marketing.

“The outcome of this global collaboration is a car that comes from where East meets West, with vital contributions from NDE and NDC being key to creating such a striking design,” said Shiro Nakamura.

This is a key theme running through Nissan designs. Alfonso Albaisa, Vice President, Nissan Design Europe, says: “Juke has elements inspired from other cars in our range such as 370Z and even Cube, but our intention is never to make obvious links between our cars but natural ones. Cube is a cool car, for example, and that coolness can also be found in Juke.”

“The incredible success of our Qashqai compact crossover – we’ve recently passed half a million sales in Europe alone - has shown that customers are fed up with conventional cars. Juke is even bolder, even more adventurous than Qashqai and is set to confirm Nissan’s position as a pioneer of crossover in Europe and, indeed, globally,” says Simon Thomas.