Short Take Road Test
Alas, poor Altima: a little late to the U.S. hybrid party, a little ordinary as you finally arrive. "Late" turns out to mean seven-plus years behind the Honda Insight, almost seven behind the Toyota Prius. There was a reason. Hanging back on the hybrid front was a corporate wait-and-see dictated by Nissan's at-the-time dicey economic circumstances.
President and CEO Carlos Ghosn suggested that hybrids (a) didn't look like a good business proposition, and (b) cars with continuously variable automatics, or CVTs (e.g., Nissan cars), could achieve fuel savings (and thus environmental benefits) readily comparable with the more exotic — and expensive — gas-electric hybrids.
Yeah, right. Hybrid. CVT. Which of these is gonna resonate with the anti-CO2 crowd?
So here, finally, is Nissan's first hybrid, and, not to be unkind, its So-What Index isn't high. There's no breakthrough technology. The dashboard readout tracking the hybridic elements (gasoline engine, electric motor, regen braking, Ni-MH batteries) is reminiscent of the displays in Toyota hybrids because the Altima uses Hybrid Synergy Drive, installed under license from Toyota.
Beyond that, there's no Prius eco-pilgrim styling to set the Altima hybrid apart from (and morally above) the herd. A little badge on the trunklid, a different wheel design — that's about it. And to amplify the anonymity, Nissan is making it available only in the states that have adopted California's emissions regs.
Does this sound tentative? Sure. Sean Blankenship, senior marketing manager, says Nissan will proceed deliberately. "We're being cautious. We want to test the hybrid market, and we're testing it with our best car."
So how does it stack up? Let's start with pricing. Like other hybrids, the Altima will cost more than its conventional stablemates. An Altima four with a CVT starts at $20,915. Nissan expects the hybrid to start at about $24,000. Our loaded test car would be about $31,000. A four-cylinder Camry with an automatic transmission starts at $19,940, and a hybrid opens at $26,820.
What do you get for that premium? You get the Altima's 2.5-liter four, detuned from 175 horsepower to 158, and an electric motor that kicks in another 40 horsepower. You also get an extra 398 pounds of mass, courtesy of the battery pack and allied equipment. As a consequence, 0-to-60 times for the hybrid and the 2.5S we tested in February ["Familial Four-Doors"] are identical at 7.4 seconds, although the hybrid is a couple 10ths quicker in the quarter-mile (15.8 seconds at 90 mph) and quicker than the Camry hybrid as well. However, like other hybrids, it doesn't take much wide-open throttle to flatten the batteries.
The other thing you get, of course, is a much higher EPA fuel-economy rating — 42 mpg city and 36 highway versus 23/29 for a conventional Altima. But as they say at the EPA, "Your mileage may vary." In our comparo, the Altima averaged 24 mpg. The hybrid's average, which included test-track thrashing, was a dismal 23 mpg. We occasionally got the mpg gauge to nudge over 30 mpg, but not by much.
What else? Besides premium pricing, you also pay a price in luggage capacity — nine cubic feet, half that of the traditional model. But you do get the Altima's athletic reflexes, quick steering, and, in this test car, excellent braking (167 feet from 70 mph) — dynamic distinctions worth having, hybrid or not.
