Nissan Thailand has unveiled the Nissan Almera Sportech, a special edition variant of the model that comes with a bunch of exterior and interior updates.

With the Autech-designed touches, the Almera Sportech actually cuts a nice figure. Up front, it gets a brand new front bumper (with silver trims), and a gloss black grille.

The Sportech kit doesn't come with side skirts, but it does get new silver side mirror covers with integrated turn signals and a set of new 15-inch, dual-tone alloy wheels.

Round the back, the Almera receives a redesigned rear bumper, and capping off the looks is a new bootlid spoiler that looks just a touch more aggressive than the one on the Malaysian-spec Almera.

Inside, gone is the white faux-leather insert on the dashboard - that's now black. In fact, black is the main theme, and at least on the mid-range V variant, the garnish around the window controls are now in black.

Meanwhile, the air-cond vents bookending the front half of the cabin are now in dark grey, and piano black decoration on the gear knob and steering wheel spokes complete the interior.

Aside from these aesthetic changes, there are no feature and powertrain updates. The fuel-sipping HRA0 (HR10DET for Malaysia) 1.0-litre, turbocharged three-cylinder mill still makes a maximum output of 100 PS and 152 Nm of torque, paired to a CVT.

Also read: VW Passat as efficient as Axia? Top 5 cars tested with lowest fuel consumption - WapCar Ratings

Things are improving for the Almera in Thailand - in February (the latest available data), it outsold the Toyota Vios, finding itself just behind the Honda City in that month's sales ranking.

Also read: Review: All-new 2020 Nissan Almera Turbo, is it worth your purchase?

It's not so rosy in Malaysia however, as it struggles to wrest sales away from the usual suspects, despite being a genuinely fantastic product.

Also read: Underrated gem. Why the all-new N18 Nissan Almera sells less than Honda City?

To recap, here's prices of the N18-generation Nissan Almera in Malaysia: