Nissan

ince 1999, Nissan has been part of the Renault–Nissan Alliance, a partnership between Nissan and French automaker Renault. As of 2013, Renault holds a 43.4% voting stake in Nissan, while Nissan holds a 15% non-voting stake in Renault. Carlos Ghosn serves as CEO of both companies.

Nissan Motor sells its cars under the Nissan, Infiniti, and Datsun brands with in-house performance tuning products labelled Nismo.

Nissan was the sixth largest automaker in the world behind Toyota, General Motors, Volkswagen Group, Hyundai Motor Group, andFord in 2013.^[9] Taken together, the Renault–Nissan Alliance would be the world’s fourth largest automaker. Nissan is the leading Japanese brand in China, Russia and Mexico.^[10]

Beginnings of Datsun name from 1914[edit]

Nissan Model 70 Phaeton, 1938

Nissan world headquarters in Nishi-ku, Yokohama

Masujiro Hashimoto founded the Kwaishinsha Motor Car Works in 1911. In 1914, the company produced its first car, called DAT.

The new car’s name was an acronym of the company’s investors’ family names:

• Kenjiro Den (田 健次郎 Den Kenjirō^?)
• Rokuro Aoyama (青山 禄郎 Aoyama Rokurō^?)
• Meitaro Takeuchi (竹内 明太郎 Takeuchi Meitarō^?)

It was renamed to Kwaishinsha Motorcar Co., Ltd. in 1918, and again to DAT Jidosha & Co., Ltd. (DAT Motorcar Co.) in 1925. DAT Motors built trucks in addition to the DAT and Datsun passenger cars. The vast majority of its output were trucks, due to an almost non- existent consumer market for passenger cars at the time. Beginning in 1918, the first DAT trucks were produced for the military market. At the same time, Jitsuyo Jidosha Co., Ltd. produced small trucks using parts, and materials imported from the United States.^[11]

In 1926 the Tokyo-based DAT Motors merged with the Osaka-based Jitsuyo Jidosha Co., Ltd. (実用自 動車製造株式会社 Jitsuyō Jidōsha Seizō Kabushiki-Gaisha^?) a.k.a. Jitsuyo Jidosha Seizo (established 1919 as a Kubota subsidiary) to become DAT Jidosha Seizo Co., Ltd Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (ダット自動車製造株式会社 DAT Jidōsha Seizō Kabushiki-Gaisha^?)in Osaka until 1932. From 1923 to 1925, the company produced light cars and trucks under the name of Lila.^[12]

In 1931, DAT came out with a new smaller car, the first «Datson», meaning «Son of DAT». Later in 1933 after Nissan took control of DAT Motors, the last syllable of Datson was changed to «sun», because «son» also means «loss» (損) in Japanese, hence the name «Datsun» (ダットサン Dattosan^?).^[13]

In 1933, the company name was Nipponized to Jidosha-Seizo Co., Ltd. (自動車製造株式会社 Jidōsha Seizō Kabushiki-Gaisha^?, «Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd.») and was moved to Yokohama.

Nissan name first used in 1930s[edit]

In 1928, Yoshisuke Aikawa founded the holding company Nihon Sangyo (日本産業 Japan Industries or Nihon Industries). The name ‘Nissan’ originated during the 1930s as an abbreviation^[14] used on the Tokyo stock market for Nihon Sangyo. This company was the famous Nissan «Zaibatsu» which included Tobata Casting and Hitachi. At this time Nissan controlled foundries and auto parts businesses, but Aikawa did not enter automobile manufacturing until 1933.^[15]

The zaibatsu eventually grew to include 74 firms, and became the fourth-largest in Japan during World War II.^[16]

In 1931, DAT Jidosha Seizo became affiliated with Tobata Casting, and was merged into Tobata Casting in 1933. As Tobata Casting was a Nissan company, this was the beginning of Nissan’s automobile manufacturing.^[17]

Nissan Motor founded in 1934[edit]

In 1934, Aikawa separated the expanded automobile parts division of Tobata Casting and incorporated it as a new subsidiary, which he named Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. (日産自動車 Nissan Jidōsha^?).^[18] The shareholders of the new company however were not enthusiastic about the prospects of the automobile in Japan, so Aikawa bought out all the Tobata Casting shareholders (using capital from Nihon Industries) in June 1934. At this time, Nissan Motor effectively became owned by Nihon Sangyo and Hitachi.^[19]

In 1935, construction of its Yokohama plant was completed. 44 Datsuns were shipped to Asia, Central and South America. In 1935, the first car manufactured by an integrated assembly system rolled off the line at the Yokohama plant.^[11] Nissan built trucks, airplanes, and engines for the Japanese military. In 1937, the company’s main plant was moved to the occupied Manchuria, and named Manchuria Heavy Industries Developing Co.^[20]

In 1940, first knockdown kits were shipped to Dowa Jidosha Kogyo (Dowa Automobile), one of MHID’s companies, for assembly.^[11] In 1944, the head office was moved to Nihonbashi, Tokyo, and the company name was changed to Nissan Heavy Industries, Ltd., which the company kept through 1949.^[11]

Nissan’s early American connection[edit]

DAT had inherited Kubota‘s chief designer, American engineer William R. Gorham. This, along with Aikawa’s 1908 visit to Detroit, was to greatly affect Nissan’s future.^[11][21] Although it had always been Aikawa’s intention to use cutting-edge auto making technology from America, it was Gorham that carried out the plan. Most of the machinery and processes originally came from the United States. When Nissan started to assemble larger vehicles under the “Nissan” brand in 1937, much of the design plans and plant facilities were supplied by the Graham-Paige Company.^[18] Nissan also had a Graham license under which passenger cars, buses and trucks were made.^[21]

In David Halberstam‘s 1986 book The Reckoning, Halberstam states «In terms of technology, Gorham was the founder of the Nissan Motor Company» and that «young Nissan engineers who had never met him spoke of him as a god and could describe in detail his years at the company and his many inventions.»