Description
The Nissan Motor Company, Ltd. trading as the Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells its cars under the Nissan, Infiniti, and Datsun brands with in-house performance tuning products labelled Nismo. The company traces its name to the Nissan zaibatsu, now called Nissan Group.
Since 1999, Nissan has been part of the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance (Mitsubishi joining in 2016), a partnership between Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors of Japan, with Renault of France. As of 2013, Renault holds a 43.4% voting stake in Nissan, while Nissan holds a 15% non-voting stake in Renault. From October 2016 onwards, Nissan holds a 34% controlling stake in Mitsubishi Motors.
In 2013, Nissan was the sixth largest automaker in the world, after Toyota, General Motors, Volkswagen Group, Hyundai Motor Group, and Ford.[10] Taken together, the Renault–Nissan Alliance would be the world's fourth largest automaker.[citation needed] Nissan is the leading Japanese brand in China, Russia and Mexico.
In 2014, Nissan was the largest car manufacturer in North America.
Nissan is the world's largest electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer, with global sales of more than 320,000 all-electric vehicles as of April 2018. The top-selling vehicle of the car-maker's fully electric lineup is the Nissan LEAF, an all-electric car and the world's top-selling highway-capable plug-in electric car in history.
In January 2018, Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa announced that all Infiniti vehicles launched from 2021 will be hybrid vehicles or all-electric vehicles.
Branding and corporate identity
Brands
Nissan: Nissan's volume models are sold worldwide under the Nissan brand.
Datsun: Until 1983, Nissan automobiles in most export markets were sold under the Datsun brand. In 1984 the Datsun brand was phased out and the Nissan brand was phased in. All cars in 1984 had both the Datsun and Nissan branding on them and in 1985 the Datsun name was completely dropped. In July 2013, Nissan announced the relaunch of Datsun as a brand targeted at emerging markets.
Infiniti: Since 1989, Nissan has sold its luxury models under the Infiniti brand. In 2012, Infiniti changed its headquarters to Hong Kong, where it is incorporated as Infiniti Global Limited. Its president is former BMW executive Roland Krueger. From 2014, Infiniti cars are sold in Japan.
Nismo: Nissan's in-house tuning shop is Nismo, short for "Nissan Motorsport International Limited." Nismo is being re-positioned as Nissan's performance brand.
Corporate identity
For many years, Nissan used a red wordmark for the company, and car "badges" for the "Nissan" and "Infiniti" brands.
At Nissan's 2013 earnings press conference in Yokohama, Nissan unveiled "a new steel-blue logo that spells out—literally—the distinction between Nissan the company and Nissan the brand." Using a blue-gray color scheme, the new corporate logo did read NISSAN MOTOR COMPANY. Underneath were the "badge" logos for the Nissan, Infiniti and Datsun brands.
Later in 2013, the Nissan "Company" logo changed to the Nissan "Corporation" logo. The latter was the logo used by Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. up to early 2020.
In July 2020, Nissan introduced new corporate and brand logos, as part of an image revamp tied to the Ariya launch.
