Second-generation Nissan Juke due next year

The styling of the current Nissan Juke has been ‘polarizing’ to say the least. But despite it being something of a love it or hate it design, the fun and funky goggle-eyed Juke has sold in impressive numbers for Nissan since its launch.

The new second-generation Juke has been designed at Nissan’s London design studio, and it’s apparently being prepared for a motor show debut sometime in the next few months with production expected to commence sometime in 2019.

Speaking to the UK’s Autocar, the Japanese auto giant’s boss of global design, Alfonso Albaisa says the second-gen Juke “doesn’t look too much like the last one,” and that “It doesn’t look like the IMx [the electric crossover concept unveiled at Tokyo last year] or new Leaf, either. It’s an urban meteor with a nasty attitude.”

It had been rumored that an initial design for the current Juke’s replacement had been reviewed and sent back to be redesigned, but Albaisa refutes that.

He comments: “[The Juke] is certainly coming soon. But it didn’t get ‘sent back.’ I’m not sure where that story came from. It’s a very cool car, and it still has all of its attitude.”

Introduced to the world at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show, the first-generation Nissan Juke provided a timely boost to the subcompact crossover segment which then grew tenfold across Europe between 2010 and 2016.

Some 1.13 million units were sold in Europe in 2016, and that number is expected to double again by 2022.

However, the Juke hasn’t enjoyed the same level of success everywhere, and Nissan has dropped the Juke from its lineup completely in the United States this year.

Sales dropped by a massive 48 percent in the US in 2017 compared to the previous year, and it’s now been replaced by a model called the Nissan Kicks.

The Kicks is a subcompact crossover being built in Brazil, Mexico, China and Malaysia that’s now being sold in North America and will eventually be sold in around 80 markets around the world.

Although it being sold in Russia and Turkey isn’t being ruled out, it’s unlikely to ever be sold in Europe and it most definitely isn’t the second-generation Juke.