Nissan

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., also called Nissan Motors or simply Nissan, was marketed under the name Datsun until 1983. Nissan is the second largest automaker in Japan, following Toyota. The first Datsun was built in 1914, but the name in those early days was DAT. The name of the company was an acronym derived from the first letter of the last names of the company's three partners. DAT had manufactured some cars in the beginning, but their focus was mostly on trucks. In the 1920's, there was very little interest in passenger cars in Japan, but trucks were in high demand. The early DAT models had a strong American-influence in their design, due to the fact that one of their founders had visited Detroit in 1908 and was greatly influenced by what he saw, plus the fact that their chief designer was an American himself. DAT introduced a new smaller car in 1931; that new car was the first "Datson", meaning "Son of DAT". Nissan took over DAT Motors in 1933 and changed the name of Datson to Datsun. They changed the last syllable of the Datson name to "sun", because "son" also means "loss" in the Japanese language. The name "Nissan" was an abbreviation used on the Tokyo stock market for the holding company Nippon Sangyo, which was founded in 1928. In its early days, Nissan controlled foundries and auto parts businesses, but they did not enter automotive manufacturing until 1933 when they purchased Datson. Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. was officially established in 1934 to handle an expanded automobile parts division. In 1930, Datson had signed a deal with the British automaker Austin, which later became part of the British Motor Corporation, to gain access to automobile and engine designs for adaption to their line of cars. Datson, and later Nissan, maintained technology relationships with the Austin car company through 1967. 1967 was a major turning point for Nissan; that was the year they released their highly advanced four cylinder overhead cam (OHC) Nissan L engine. This engine was very similar to the Mercedes-Benz OHC designs, which was also a totally new engine designed by Nissan. The Nissan L engine was used in the Datsun 510 sedan, garnering a lot of positive press world-wise for Nissan. The suceess of the Datsun 510 was followed three years later in 1970 by the release of the new 240Z sports car, which utilized a six-cylinder variation of the Nissan L engine. The Datsun 240Z was an overnight success for the Nissan Motor Company, catapulting the Nissan brand to world class status in the global automotive market. Due to the fuel shortages of the 1970's and early 1980's, Nissan became one of the largest automobile exporters in the world. In 1989, Nissan introduced Infiniti in the United States as a high-end luxury car, designed to rival Toyota and Honda's luxury brands, Lexus and Acura, respectively. As the twentieth century was winding down, Nissan began to experience financial problems. This lead to an alliance between Renault S.A. of France and Nissan in 1999. The Renault-Nissan Alliance is a unique group of two global companies linked by reciprocal investment and shareholding. Renault holds 44.3% of Nissan shares, and Nissan holds 15% of Renault shares. Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault and Nissan, implemented the "Nissan Revival Plan" (NRP). The Nissan revival is considered by many leading economists to be one of the most noteworthy corporate turnarounds in history. Nissan saw a dramatic revitalization of both the Nissan and Infiniti brands, and Nissan's profits reached record levels. Given Nissan's dynamic past, there is reason to believe that Nissan will continue to be a global powerhouse through the twenty-first century as well.

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