How Nissan introduced the car industry to retro design

We recently learned that Nissan's clone of the new Renault Twingo EV will also have a retro design, inspired by a car from the same era.

The Be-1 is far less known than the Mk1 Twingo, having been exclusive to Japan, but far more significant in terms of influence on future design.

When Nissan exhibited the Be-1 concept car at the 1985 Tokyo show, Autocar's reaction was a one-line dismissal: "cheeky ugliness".

Yet the Japanese public reacted by mobbing the little Micra-based hatchback, and the only words its lead designer, Naoki Sakai, heard each day were 'kawaii' and 'hoshii!', meaning 'how cute' and 'I want it!'.

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This discord can probably be explained by the newness of 'retro' as a concept – the word itself had entered the English lexicon only a decade prior – and its peculiar prevalence in Japanese culture, especially among the young.

Whereas Minis were ten a penny in London, they were the dream drive for trendy Tokyoites - and the older the better.

So the Be-1 was approved for a small production run of 10,000 and, despite it being mechanically identical to the breathless and anodyne Mk1 Micra yet three times pricier, demand was overwhelming to the extent that Nissan had to run a lottery for build slots.

Naturally, Nissan got fully behind the 'Pike Factory' team that had imagined it, leading to the 1987 debuts of the Pao and S-Cargo another supermini and a small van, again Micra-based.

"The Pao is basically a '40s jungle car or at least that's the image Nissan wants to portray," we commented.

"Inside, you get a simple metal dash with a large single speedo, old-fashioned flick switches and brilliant period-look radio that was designed for the car. The safari theme continues with simple hemp-like seat trim and authentic-looking satchels for maps on the backs of the front seats.

"S-Cargo, in case the joke has passed you by, is a clever play on the French word 'escargot', and this snail-shaped device is essentially a modern Japanese interpretation of the Citroën 2CV. Cute, weird, fun – they're all adjectives that apply to the S-Cargo's 'retro' styling, which is so completely over the top that you can't help but fall for it."

Isamu Suzuki was the general manager of Nissan's Product Planning and Marketing Group Number Four – but universally known as Mr Be-1.