It’s roomy and well-equipped

Head and legroom are downright impressive – peer tested by some extremely tall colleagues. The seats pretty much fill the short vehicle, leaving little cargo room. The rear bench splits and folds down, or you can slide it forward to double the cargo space. There is room under the floor for the charge cables.

You can equip the Sakura well, including a heated steering wheel and Nissan’s ProPilot driver assistance system.

It also has ProPilot Park, an automated parking system than controls steering, acceleration, braking, shifting and the parking brake. That can prove invaluable getting into the tight spaces that serve as parking spots in crowded Japanese

cities where every inch of space is utilized.

Range is only 112 miles on the WLTC Japan test cycle, but the Sakura is an urban vehicle for most buyers, for short trips in a country with an excellent train and transit system.

Standard charge takes about eight hours, but a quick charge needs only 40 minutes. The lithium-ion battery in the car can also power a home for a day in an emergency. at one end of the spectrum, and a lot of buses at the other. Larger EVs, like those from Tesla, are not as popular.

The Sakura does not have one-pedal driving – the vehicle will slow when you lift your foot off the pedal but will not come to a complete stop. Turn on e-Pedal Step for more regenerative braking and smooth deceleration to a creep, but not a full stop. Nissan executives say customer feedback is they prefer this over one-pedal driving.

There are three drive modes: Eco, Standard and Sport, and the instant torque makes the Sakura feel powerful beyond its size. The tiny car with 14-inch wheels likely would not fare well on North American highways where every vehicle that passes could swallow it whole, but the Sakura paces well with the rest of Japanese traffic, even on highways, where driving is quite orderly and even modest speed limits are obeyed.