The 2015 Nissan Micra has one thing in common with a Rolls-Royce Wraith: they both have shocking price tags. The McLaren P1 awes people with its performance numbers, and the Bugatti Veyron blows people away with its horsepower figures, but the Micra’s headline-grabbing number is its $9,998 price tag.
That four-digit price makes it the cheapest car available in Canada. It’s a new car for people who usually shop for used cars. But have you ever wondered what goes into building Canada’s cheapest car?
The Micra is built exclusively at Nissan’s Aguascalientes plant in Mexico. Last year, the plant produced 707,000 vehicles that were exported to more than 100 different countries. At full capacity the plant produces one car every 55 seconds and it does this six days a week.
There are two plants in Aguascalientes and there is another one in Cuernavaca. Between the three plants, Nissan employs 14,760 people as part of its Mexican operations and 9,000 of those are employed in Aguascalientes.
The plant where the Micra is produced (along with the Sentra and Versa) occupies 180 hectares of land. Forty-five per cent of the energy needed to run this massive plant is from wind energy and the press shop where body panels are made from sheet steel employs a 100 per cent recycling policy. This means that every single scrap created in the cutting and stamping process will be melted down and reused again.
Gallery: The 11 most affordable cars in Canada
