Nissan Design Europe celebrates 15 years. Discover the most emblematic models
Nissan Design Europe (NDE), the Japanese brand's creative hub and starting point for some of the brand's most popular, celebrates today 15 years in its current location.
The studio officially opened its doors on January 25, 2003 in the Paddington area of London. The building that serves as its base underwent an exhaustive rehabilitation program that transformed an unoccupied, graffiti-covered vehicle maintenance warehouse – officially called Rotunda – into an extremely modern urban design space.
The NDE before.
Internally known as NDE (Nissan Design Europe), it has been one of Nissan's success factors in Europe for a decade and a half, with a strong share in the emergence of Crossovers. The original concept of the Nissan Qashqai (2003) originated precisely from the NDE drawing boards, like all the production versions that followed. The NDE was also the driving force behind Qashqai's “younger brother,” the Nissan Juke. Together, Juke and Qashqai pioneered the demand for crossovers and transformed the European automotive landscape, with every other brand following in Nissan's footsteps.
The NDE after.
In 2014 NDE also hosted the European design studio from Infiniti, Nissan's premium brand.
NDE has made an extraordinary contribution to Nissan's current global product range, particularly with the Qashqai and Juke, which have brought new levels of choice, versatility and innovation to consumers.
Mamoru Aoki, Vice President, Nissan Design Europe
To celebrate 15 years spent in her current home in London, Mamoru has created a personal list of her 15 favorite designs conceived at NDE over these 15 years (see below). This list also includes his reflections on why each model was included in the list:
2003 – Qashqai Concept. “Preview of Nissan's plans in terms of innovation and creation of a new type of car. This was the starting point for what is now the extremely popular European crossover segment.”2005 – Micra c+c. “The Micra was already full of personality and was an icon in the city car segment, but this concept really highlighted its grace.”2006- Concept Terranaut. "A preview of the exclusive Nissan Pathfinder SUV, aimed at adventurers, scientists and geologists traveling to inhospitable regions around the world."2007 – Qashqai. “Nissan's first C-segment crossover. By the end of 2007 Nissan had sold nearly 100,000 units in Europe. The improvements made to the model in 2010 were also extremely well received.”2007 – NV200 prototype. “An innovative blend of mobile office and utility car in one package. Smart and active people's dream car, based on the NV200 van.”2009- Concept Qazana. “Following the success of the Qashqai, this was a preview of Nissan's plan for a smaller crossover. The concept and style were bold and unique.”2010 – Juke. "Nissan's first crossover for B-segment consumers. A Nissan design icon, it was further proof of the high potential of what could be created and developed at the NDE."2013 – Qashqai. “The second generation of Qashqai. This was a huge step forward in almost every way, retaining the versatility and on-road performance – the “Qashqai essence” – of the original.”2014 – Nissan Concept 2020. “A masterpiece of automotive design, it was created to showcase Nissan's design vision for the future, which we dub Emotional Geometry.”2014 – Infiniti Emerg-E prototype. “The ultimate expression of Infiniti, Nissan's premium brand, which combines inspired performance and forward-looking design towards zero emissions.”2015 – Concept Gripz. “A study of a near-future B-segment crossover combined with sports car characteristics. It also highlights the direction Nissan is driving its design into the future, in line with the Nissan Concept 2020 vision.”2015 – Infiniti QX30 prototype. “Infiniti's design vision for a new premium compact crossover, aimed at a new generation of individualistic customers. It gave rise to the QX30 production vehicle.”2016 – Blade Glider prototype. “A high-performance, futuristic electric car in a revolutionary sports car design. A competition prototype, which proved to be extremely popular in every region of the world where it was seen.”2016 – Concept Navara EnGuard. “It shows a possible direction of customization for Navara, with innovative use of Nissan electric vehicle batteries to create portable power units for companies working remotely.”2017 – Infiniti Q60 Project Black S. “It exploits the potential of a new range of high-performance models from Infiniti. A radical reinterpretation of the Q60 coupé, reminiscent of a high-performance hybrid powertrain inspired by Formula 1 energy recovery systems.”
