Nissan Juke 2026 News

We’re more than halfway through 2026 and I can definitively say that this year's new cars are the ugliest to date.Sure you can argue the plastic fantastic cars of the late 1990s and early 2000s, or the asthmatic land yachts from the mid-to-late 1970s looked the worst, but so far this year what carmakers have been revealing is an assault to the eyes.Suspect number one is the Ferrari Luce.The Italian carmaker’s recent car design has been rather indistinguishable from model to model. For example, if you told me to tell you the difference between a 849 Testarossa and 12Cilindri and Amalfi, I’d really struggle. I say this as a die-hard car fan.But the Luce marked a jagged change in direction for Ferrari. It was designed by creative collection LoveFrom, which was founded by former Apple exec Sir Jony Ive.I’ll admit the interior of the Luce is stunning and the blending of digital and analogue elements is ingenious, but the exterior is a bloated mess. It’s made even worse with the fact it has a Ferrari badge on it.The Luce would make so much more sense with any other badge attached to it.This is just the tip of the iceberg. Five days before the Luce was revealed, Mercedes-AMG revealed its all-new AMG GT 4-Door.Mercedes did receive some negative press regarding the AMG GT 4-Door’s design, it was arguably saved by the reveal of the Luce as the news cycle and people’s attention shifted very quickly.Its design deserved to be roasted more. Like the Luce, the new AMG GT 4-Door is all-electric and it looks just as horrific. The Mercedes is much more flashy and tacky, though.I’ll admit that the overall silhouette is slick and low-sprung, like a performance car should, but the front grille and lighting signatures are a hot mess.Then inside, if you take the Mercedes-Benz badge away, the AMG GT 4-Door doesn't have anything distinguishing it specifically as a Mercedes model.Sure you could argue that the circular air vents or the screen set-up is a Mercedes design trait, but there is more to design language than this.Lastly there’s the new Nissan Juke, which is all-electric and a European-focused model, meaning it’s not coming to Australia.The Juke has always had a polarising design, but this new-generation takes it to the next level.There are so many creases and lines on the outside that it looks like the car has been pre-crashed or perhaps hasn’t fully rendered yet.I will admit that with certain colour combinations the new Juke does look cool, but the lighting, especially the tail lights look silly. They’re mounted so low and are too large.While the new Juke stands out too much, there are a plethora of gargantuan Chinese SUVs with range-extender (REEV) powertrains that are indistinguishable from each other. They’re all large blobs on wheels with ginormous grilles.Examples that have been revealed so far in 2026 include the IM LS9 Hyper, Wey V9X, XPeng GX and the Zeekr 8X. Many more will likely pop up before the end of the year.Although there have been some shockingly bad-looking cars revealed this year, there are still some diamonds in the rough. 2026 also seems to be the revival of the wagon.Some highlights include the new Audi RS5, which is available in liftback and wagon, as well as the new A6 allroad, which has some of the best and most exaggerated rear wheel arches that I’ve seen on a production car for a long time.The new Dacia Striker is a beautiful-looking car that has just the right amount of wagon and crossover SUV design elements. It’s segment-busting in the same way as the Peugeot 408 and previous-generation Subaru Outback are.It’s worth noting once again that 2026 is only halfway through and there is still another six months to go. There’s still time to turn things around in terms of new car design, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

Nissan Australia is ignoring its growing number of electric vehicles (EVs) available in other markets and sticking with just one in Australia, the Ariya mid-size SUV.Earlier this year the Japanese carmaker revealed the latest-generation of its Juke small SUV and confirmed it’s going all-electric.It will launch in Europe during 2027, but Nissan Australia confirmed it will not be coming to Australia.“The all-electric Juke will be built at our Sunderland plant in the UK and has been developed primarily as a Europe-focused EV,” said a Nissan Australia spokesperson.“At this stage, there are no plans to introduce the model in Australia.”Additionally Nissan has recently launched a new-generation version of the Leaf, which is now also a small SUV. It and the new Juke are based on the same dedicated electric platform.There were initially plans for the new-generation Leaf to come to Australia but these have been put on hold.“With respect to the next-generation Leaf, we have decided to postpone its introduction to Australia following a review of the local business case,” said a Nissan Australia spokesperson.At this stage it’s unclear when the new Leaf will now launch in Australia.Beyond the new Juke and Leaf EVs, Nissan also offers a number of other small electric models in other markets. These include the Nissan Micra, which is essentially a rebadged Renault 5, as well as the Nissan Sakura electric kei car in Japan.Nissan Australia has provided no plans to bring either small EV to Australia at this stage and it’s unclear whether this will ever change.“Nissan remains committed to electrification in Australia through a range of technologies, including battery-electric vehicles such as Ariya, as well as our e-POWER hybrid technology,” said a Nissan Australia spokesperson.“We recently launched the updated Qashqai with our latest e-Power hybrid system and will add a 4x2 e-Power X-Trail model to the range in just a few months.”The Nissan Ariya was first revealed in 2019 and launched in certain markets in 2022. It didn’t launch in Australia until 2025.It has received a facelift in other markets, which hasn’t arrived in Australia yet.Although Nissan can’t provide a timeline for when the new Leaf will launch and has ruled out the new Juke EV, the Ariya might not be the only Nissan EV in Australia for long.The Japanese carmaker currently has its eye on importing models made by its Chinese joint-venture company, Dongfeng Nissan.These models include the N7 electric sedan and NX8 electric SUV, as well as the Frontier Pro plug-in hybrid ute.No confirmation of what exact models are coming to Australia and when has been provided yet, however it’s likely that an announcement will come before the end of 2026 or in early 2027.Regardless, Nissan needs to introduce more low-emission vehicles as it already has more than $10 million owing to the federal government for not meeting the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) CO2 emissions target for vehicles imported.Nissan can either pay this fine or risk it doubling if it misses the deadline. Alternatively, it can trade credits with other carmakers that are under the threshold or introduce more low-emissions vehicles and beat the CO2 target the following year.It’s worth noting the CO2 targets get stricter every year and ultimately the only vehicle that currently produces zero grams of tailpipe emissions is an EV.

Nissan Australia has confirmed sweeping changes to its model line-up effective immediately, as formerly key models are axed in favour of a more hybrid-focused product mix.The 2026 Nissan Pathfinder large SUV and the Nissan Juke small SUV will be the last of their kind sold in Australia indefinitely, while the brand is also putting a hold on the arrival of the new Nissan Leaf electric small SUV until further notice.Along with dwindling sales, the models’ powertrain options make them incompatible with Nissan Australia’s hybrid-heavy plan, the outgoing regional boss has said.Nissan Oceania Managing Director Andrew Humberstone told CarsGuide the Pathfinder and Juke are being given the axe while the new Leaf, which in its new form is a small SUV, won’t arrive in showrooms for the foreseeable future either.That plan, he said, involves a lot more e-Power electrification to, presumably, balance out the effects of the incoming diesel-powered D27 Nissan Navara ute and the rather large Y63 Nissan Patrol in terms of Australia’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES), which bring fines for models that pollute more and award credits for selling low-emissions vehicles.With Juke and Pathfinder out, Nissan’s line-up is down to six badge names: Qashqai and X-Trail, the small and medium SUVs with hybrid ‘e-Power’ options, Navara and Patrol which fall under the light commercial vehicle category, plus the electric Ariya and the low-volume Nissan Z sports car.“We're going to see a natural dispersion between product and what's coming in, what's going out,” Humberstone told CarsGuide, “so we have to manage that in order to make those tough decisions now for the future.“Juke will no longer be in market, Pathfinder will no longer be in market. Leaf, we're going to, in essence, indefinitely delay at this moment.“We’ll continue to bring in, obviously Navara, which is more NVES-appropriate than the previous version, as is the new Patrol.”Behind Mazda Australia, Nissan is in second place for the largest looming fines as of the most recent February 1, 2026 figures.According to the NVES Regulator, Nissan Australia racked up $10.76m in potential fines between July 1, 2025 and December 31, 2025. Nissan must offset this by selling more low-emission vehicles, or buy credits from other manufacturers, in order to avoid the fines becoming a reality.The plan, according to Humberstone, is to create a model line-up that consists of mostly hybrid variants, thus the introduction of the e-Power-only Qashqai range last year.In addition, a more affordable version of the Nissan X-Trail is set to arrive with 2WD e-Power hybrid in the hopes of increasing hybrid sales of the model.“In addition to that, in the bridging strategy we're focused on when we see circa 75 per cent of all the registrations being, which is within the EV/hybrid space, and that's where we're putting all our energy in the short-term.“So that means the full range of Qashqai now is coming with e-Power technology, which is our hybrid. We’re seeing it with X-Trail… we now want to expand that with a 2x4 hybrid version.”Nissan’s financial situation has been the subject of much speculation, but Humberstone says one of the final things he leaves Nissan Australia with before his departure to a posting in France from April 2026 is this plan to future-proof the model line-up.He said the tumultuous state of the industry means difficult short-term decisions are needed to put the business in a better position in the medium- and long-term.“I would say even within the next six, seven months, you're going to start seeing the benefits of the work. The natural cleansing needs to be done. The sooner you do that, the better. “I believe our timing was perfect, given the volatility of what's been going on all over the place, and the number of competitors and more recent stuff that's going off at the moment around the globe.“We're here to stay in Oceania, and we're committed to the market. There's product investment being made. It's done. So there's no speculation on that.”Humberstone’s replacement is Steve Milette, who was President of Nissan Canada for more than five years, and is currently Division Vice President for Dealer Network Development, Customer Resources, Training and Customer Experience for Nissan and Infiniti’s entire North America region.He takes up the much shorter title of Managing Director of Nissan Oceania on April 1, and is expected to continue overseeing the plan to increase Nissan Australia’s hybridisation of the model range.