New Nissan Pulsar hatch to tackle Golf and Focus

Teaser pic confirms Nissan is returning to the family hatchback sector with an all new Nissan Pulsar

This is the first teaser for the Nissan Pulsar – a Volkswagen Golf-sized car that will be fully revealed on 20 May and on sale from autumn this year.

Nissan is on to a winning formula with its Qashqai and Juke models but Nissan’s vice president of sales and marketing, Guillaume Carter believes a hatch is necessary, too. “When we went out and did our research we found that there were lots of customers who would never buy a crossover. So we knew that while we had the Juke and the Qashqai, we also needed a traditional B-segment model (the Nissan Note) and a C-segment hatchback,” he said.

All we’ve got to go on is this teaser shot of a headlight, revealing a grille and design that looks to be inspired by the latest Qashqai. Expect the interior to get a Qashqai-style design, too, with a focus on high-quality materials and technology.

As for the engines, Nissan knows there are plenty of fleet buyers in the segment so they’ll be looking at including a Bluemotion-style model, featuring fuel economy of more than 80mpg and CO2 emissions under 90g/km. Expect to see other engines borrowed from the Juke and Qashqai line-ups, including a 1.2-litre turbo to rival the Golf’s 1.2 TSI engine. 

Eventually, Nissan has confirmed to Auto Express that a Nismo performance version will be offered to give the brand a serious rival to the Golf GTI.

The Pulsar name was first introduced in 1978 and has been used in global markets like Australia since then. In some European markets the Sunny was called Pulsar and it was also used on the car that we knew as the Almera.

More pictures and details will be released when the Pulsar is fully unveiled on 20 May. When it does go on sale in the autumn we’re expecting it to cost from around £16,000.