Strip the Datsun Go back to its specification sheet and the character is already there: Petrol engine, 50 –. Datsun built from 2014 to 2020, as electrification stopped being an experiment and the crossover took every market. The shape is credited to Hiroshi Oda and Choi Jinwook (pre-facelift).
The background
The Datsun Go/Go+ is a city car and mini MPV with "5+2" seating capacity that was produced by the Japanese automaker Nissan under the Datsun brand (which was revived in 2013) between 2014 and 2022. Named after the "Dat-Go", Datsun's first car launched in the early 20th century, the Go was available in developing markets such as India, South Africa and Indonesia.
It is built on the same V platform as the K13 Nissan Micra/March, from which it has inherited much of its components. In 2018, Nissan introduced a crossover derivative called the Datsun Cross, which was previewed as the Datsun Go-cross Concept in 2015. The Cross was only available in Indonesia.
The engineering
The engine is Petrol engine; the output is 50 –; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to 785 kg. That is roughly 64 horsepower per tonne: unhurried — enough for the job, not for the bragging. Drive goes through a 5-speed Manual transmission / manual (2014–2020) / Continuously variable transmission / CVT (2018–2020). The layout matters: the engine drives the front wheels, the packaging choice that gives a small car a big cabin. The wheelbase is 2450 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Where it sits
In the Datsun line-up the Datsun Go has a clear place: it handed the line to the Nissan Magnite (Indonesia); the factory was Chennai (Renault Nissan Automotive India. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Daihatsu Wake, the Suzuki Hustler, the Daihatsu Cast. Its Datsun stablemates include the 280Zx and the 310.