Nissan reveals new Pulsar with Euro twist

Nissan's stylish new Pulsar hatch has broken cover in Europe ahead of its Paris motor show public reveal in October, revealing the contemporary new visuals with which it will target Euro-zone class-leaders like the Ford Focus and Volkswagen Golf.

As we reported yesterday, when a teaser image of the next Pulsar was released, Nissan Australia says it has no plans to introduce the new Spanish-built hatch here, where the current Thai-sourced Pulsar sedan and hatch will continue on sale.

"Nissan Australia does not currently plan to release the recently announced European-market Nissan Pulsar," it said in a statement. "Nissan Australia will continue selling the current Australian-market Pulsar in both hatch and sedan format for the local small car market."

However, as we also reported yesterday, the new Pulsar five-door is destined to be a global model and expected to be offered in Australia in the longer term.

Indeed, according to Nissan's global product planning boss, Andy Palmer, it's only a matter of time before the new Pulsar hatch is introduced here, perhaps alongside a new Pulsar sedan previewed by the Lannia concept, both of which could eventually be produced in Thailand.

In response to questions about whether the Thai-built Pulsar currently offered in Australia and other Asia Pacific markets would be replaced by this svelte European model, Palmer told motoring.com.au at the 2014 New York motor show: "It can’t sit by itself. So one way or another there needs to be a C-segment hatch in Australia and eventually at some point or other it needs to converge,” he said.

Nissan Australia’s new managing director, Richard Emery, also stated he wanted the new model.

"It's not in our plan but of course it is a potential," he told motoring.com.au. "Of course I am going to look at what is available to us and ask the question. 'So why haven't we got that? What do we need to do to get that?' It would be mad for me not to ask those questions," said Emery.

Nissan says its new Pulsar, which borrows design elements from the new QASHQAI and X-TRAIL including a V-grille and gently curved extremities, takes a new "premium approach" and will offer class-leading interior space and technology.

It's claimed to be the first car in its sector to offer moving object detection, and will offer other high-tech driving aids including lane departure and blind spot warning systems and automatic forward emergency braking, all under the Nissan Safety Shield banner.

Euro Pulsars will also be available with LED front lights which use 50 per cent less power.

Full smartphone integration will also be offered in the new Pulsar, along with Google's Send-to-Car functionality, allowing users to send addresses via Google Maps to their car's navigation. A "wide variety of useful and informative apps" will also be available.

No interior images have yet been released, but Nissan says the new Pulsar hatch sets new standards for interior space, offering best-in-class rear legroom and shoulder room.

Measuring 4385mm long, the five-seater – based on the modular CMF2 architecture that underpins the X-Trail and various future Renaults -- is claimed to have the longest wheelbase in its class. At 2700mm, the latter is almost 70mm longer than the wheelbase of Volkswagen's latest Golf five-door, which is 115mm shorter overall.

The Pulsar sold in Australia runs a 1.8-litre petrol engine worth 96kW/174Nm and an up-spec turbo-petrol 1.6 that generates 140kW/240Nm for the SSS model.

Europe's new Barcelona-built Pulsar will come with a 1.2-litre DIG-T turbo-petrol engine that develops 84kW as the entry-level rig, plus an 80kW/260Nm 1.5-litre turbo-diesel.

The same 140kW 1.6-litre turbo-petrol engine seen in our Pulsar SSS will then be released in Europe's new range-topping model next year, following the new Pulsar's release there in the third quarter of this year.

All models will be packaged as standard with a six-speed manual gearbox, alongside an optional CVT automatic.

In Europe, the new Pulsar will be a belated replacement for the Almera (sold here as the N16 Pulsar), which was discontinued in 2006 and effectively replaced by the QASHQAI (sold here as the Dualis). The second-generation Qashqai will be launched here in July.