Nissan is celebrating 30 years of production at its Atsugi, Japan technical center, so it produced a commemorative video (shown below) to mark the event. One problem, though: on its initial release, no one bothered to check the video for cars that shouldn’t be revealed.
Inside Line caught the first release of the video, which shows the undisguised 2013 Nissan Altima in all of its glory. Plainly visible are the car’s revised grille, new headlights and bold character lines.
Nissan clearly didn’t intend for the car to be displayed, so its tribute video was quickly pulled down and replaced by an edited version. There have been plenty of spy photos of the 2013 Altima, but all have shown the car in heavily disguised form.
Although the exact styling of the Altima was unknown until now, much of its content has already been revealed. The car will come to market with a heavily revised CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission), said to reduce friction by up to 40-percent compared to the current unit.
For 2014, Nissan is planning an Altima Hybrid that will pair a supercharged 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine with a compact electric motor integrated with the CVT. Technically a mild hybrid (since it can’t be operated on battery power alone), the Altima Hybrid is expected to return V-6 levels of performance with fuel economy up to 40 mpg highway.
The 2013 Nissan Altima is expected to make its North American auto show debut this spring, with sales starting in the later half of the year.
