It is official – the upcoming all-new 2020 Nissan Almera for Malaysia will be getting a turbocharged engine, replacing the outgoing model’s naturally-aspirated unit.

On the surface, it appears that Edaran Tan Chong Motor, the official distributor of Nissan vehicles, has wisen up and decided to give Malaysians a better powertrain than before. But is that really the case?

Well, the actual reason is due to the fact that ETCM does not have any other engine option to offer in the all-new Almera.

Let me explain.

Earlier, we reported that ETCM will continue to offer the outgoing model’s 1.5-litre naturally-aspirated petrol engine on the all-new Nissan Almera, owing to the fact that Malaysia lacks the necessary incentives for low CO2 engines.

But the reality is that there are no other engine options for right-hand-drive versions of the N18-generation Almera.​

The other market that gets the N18-generation Almera is Brunei, and it too gets the same 1.0-litre turbocharged engine as the Thai-spec car.

Apart from the 1.0-litre turbocharged engine, Nissan also offers the N18-generation Almera with a 1.6-litre naturally-aspirated petrol engine mated to a CVT-type automatic transmission, but this particular powertrain combination is limited to left-hand drive markets like North America, Mexico, and the Middle East.

Powertrain aside, ETCM has also released the all-new Almera’s equipment list, which is rather comprehensive. All variants of the all-new Almera get AEB and FCW, in addition to stability control. Upper variants of the all-new Almera add side and curtain airbags, bringing the total airbag count to 6.

On paper at least, the all-new Nissan Almera ticks all the right boxes – good looks, nice interior, and a decent equipment list. In fact, here's a list of eight features unique to the Malaysian-spec Almera.