NEW YORK MOTOR SHOW: New Nissan Altima sketched

The official countdown to the global debut of the sixth-generation Nissan Altima has continued with the release of this single teaser sketch this afternoon – three weeks ahead of its world premiere at the New York motor show on March 28.

No further information about the redesigned mid-size sedan was announced, Nissan saying only that it reveals “an expressive, sophisticated all-new Altima and hints at the future of Nissan’s sedan design language”.

You may well ask why this is relevant to Australians, given the Altima was axed here due to slow sales in mid-2017, although it still represents Nissan in Australia's premier motorsport category and may continue to do so next year.

The reason is the Altima could return under Nissan’s new Australian management team led by managing director Stephen Lester, who has previously told motoring.com.au that he would consider any model that can compete in market segments in which the company is not currently represented.

Right now that includes every passenger vehicle segment except sports cars, given the 370Z and GT-R coupes are the only cars Nissan Australia sells following the discontinuation of the Micra, Pulsar and Altima in the past 12 months.

So although the old Altima was available in Australia for just four years from 2012, the nameplate could make a comeback in the form of the 2019 Altima, which should bring a smart new design, new connectivity and driver assistance technologies, and perhaps even a V6 engine.

Same goes for Nissan’s larger sedan, the Maxima, which has been absent for even longer Down Under but is about to be facelifted for the US, as these spy shots show.

Australia’s mid-size car market hasn’t grown since 2010 and is more competitive than ever with new entrants like Holden’s first imported Commodore joining other brand flagships like the Toyota Camry, Mazda6, Ford Mondeo, Subaru Liberty and Hyundai Sonata.

However, it not only remains sizeable and potentially lucrative, the demise of Toyota’s homegrown Camry and Aurion (as well as the Aussie-made Commodore and Ford Falcon) could bring more customers to the Altima this time round.

All that said, if Nissan Australia can establish a business case for the new Altima (and/or the new Maxima), we may not see either model for some time. By then Australia’s passenger car market could be dwarfed by SUVs – one area in which Nissan does remain strong.