With the 2012 Toyota Camry and the 2013 Ford Fusion sedans the latest competition in the US market, Nissan is doing all it can to boost Altima’s(Teana in India) sales. The next generation version of the Altima, Nissan says will be a big step up from the current gen model. Nissan is betting on a vastly improved CVT transmission on the 2013 Altima/Teana, that is expected to be reduce friction by a whopping 40% when compared to the current version. This will give a big boost to fuel economy, which currently is the hot topic of contention amongst competing D-segment cars.
Along with the improvement to the CVT transmission, the new Altima will also get a hybrid engine option, which will do duty alongside the 2.5 Liter four pot petrol engine. Coming to the Indian angle of things, there’s still no news of the Teana arriving with a diesel engine option though. Also, the Teana is still imported as a CBU to India as the low volumes generated by the petrol engined model don’t justify an assembly operation. The Teana’s import via the CBU route makes the car quite pricey compared to the competition, a prime reason as to why the Teana finds very few takers in India in the first place.
2012 Nissan Altima-Teana Sedan
The Indian market, especially in the luxury car segment has always been partial towards diesel engine cars, which outsell petrol engined cars with a 80-20 split. So, a diesel engine would be in order for any luxury car which wants to aim for big volumes than just being a brand builder for its maker. By the looks of it though, the 2013 Altima will arrive into India badged as the Teana sometime next year, but don’t expect a diesel engine just as yet as the Teana continues to merely mark Nissan’s token presence in the Indian D-segment car market.
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