The Mississippi-built Nissan Altima is the lowest-priced midsize sedan that’s still made in America, but it won’t be for long.
Nissan’s senior vice president in charge of product and planning, Ponz Pandikuthira, told Ward’s Auto that the Altima “will soon depart,” as the full-size Maxima and subcompact Versa already have.
“We had planned two EV sedans for the space occupied by Altima and Maxima, but EV volume hasn’t taken off yet. It may be closer to 2029 or 2030 before we see a resurgence in that segment, and there will be a lot of progress between now and then on the cost of electric vehicles and batteries,” he said.
The Altima currently starts $28,825, which undercuts the American-made Honda Accord and Toyota Camry. Pandikuthira did not say exactly when Altima production will end, but the factory that builds it also assembles the Frontier pickup, which will soon be replaced by a next-generation truck that will also spawn a new Xterra SUV.
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Nissan sold 93,268 Altimas in 2025, which was down from an all-time high of 335,644 in 2014, as customers migrated toward its SUVs. The Rogue compact SUV is now one of the top 10 best-selling models in the U.S. with 135,970 delivered through the first half of this year. A redesigned Rogue with a hybrid model is set to be introduced for the 2027 model year.
Pandikuthira also told Ward’s Auto that “all our market data says that having a Kicks [subcompact SUV] starting around $20-21K is the entry market we need to go after.” The Mexican import currently starts at a $22,730 MSRP.
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