NISSAN EXEC SAID ALTIMA WOULD ‘SOON DEPART.’ THEN CAME 2027
A Nissan executive said the Nissan Altima would “soon depart,” but the automaker has now announced a 2027 model.
Ponz Pandikuthira, Nissan’s North American head of product planning and its senior vice president for North America, told WardsAuto the midsize family sedan was on its way out, Car and Driver reported on July 15, 2026.
The Altima’s departure would give the “grown-up” Sentra room to stretch its legs, and Nissan intended the Sentra to cover its sedan market. Nissan had just revealed a refreshed Sentra.
Nissan pushed back hard. “The Nissan Altima remains an important part of our lineup, meeting the needs of sedan buyers today,” the company said in a statement.
Nissan also said the current Altima was still in production and that it planned to bring out a new model year later in the year. In other words, no one was pulling the plug that day.
Pandikuthira also talked up the electric future, with a caveat. Nissan did not expect a surge in electric-sedan volume until the end of the decade, when EVs and batteries were expected to get more affordable.
It was not the first time the Altima looked like it was heading out the door. The sedan had been expected to end after the 2025 model year, until Nissan announced it would return for the 2026 model year.
What happened next
On October 14, 2026, Nissan made good on its promise. The company announced the 2027 Altima and published a press kit with pricing.
The lineup has three grades: SV FWD, SR FWD and SR AWD. The base 2.5 SV FWD has a suggested price of $27,790, and the SR grades cost more.
Under the hood, there is a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine paired with a continuously variable transmission. Output is 188 horsepower for the front-wheel-drive models, and the all-wheel-drive version makes slightly less. Nissan offers its Intelligent All-Wheel Drive as an option.
Nothing about the powertrain is new. Motor1 reported that the engine and output figures carry over from the previous model year.
Motor1 also put the SV FWD at $29,065 with a $1,275 destination charge. That is a different measure from Nissan’s suggested list price, which does not show destination included.
Nissan has not said whether the new model year will be the Altima’s last.
