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Nissan is killing its small car models in Europe and Russia

With the public's seemingly insatiable hunger for SUV's, the compact car's days are numbered.

Kyle Hyatt Former news and features editor
Kyle Hyatt (he/him/his) hails originally from the Pacific Northwest, but has long called Los Angeles home. He's had a lifelong obsession with cars and motorcycles (both old and new).
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Kyle Hyatt
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The Russian-built Nissan Almera has been in production since 2013 and will go out of production by the end of this year.

 Ilya Plekhanov via Wikimedia Commons

It would seem as though the sedan and hatchback apocalypse isn't just limited to the US because Nissan is pulling the ripcord on its compact car business in Europe and Russia according to Automotive News.

The company stopped production of its Pulsar hatchback in Europe in June and plans to do the same to the Almera sedan in Russia before the end of the year. Its reasons for doing so include a change in customer preference toward small SUV's and crossovers , much the same as with US manufacturers.

Once the Russia-only Almera is dead, the only non-SUV vehicle that will wear a Nissan badge in that country will be the . In Europe, only the Leaf will survive the move to sport-utility. It's not all doom and gloom, SUV sales for the brand are up with the X-Trail and Qashqai models seeing a small bump.

Another interesting note, Nissan is rebadging Ladas in Russia as Datsuns and the brand's curiously named mi-Do and on-Do models are in the proverbial toilet, having fallen by more than 20 percent since January.