About Nissan Cars
Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. was founded in 1934 and was owned by Nihon Sangyo and Hitachi. In 1935 the company constructed its Yokohama plant and the first cars to be produced 44 Datsuns were then shipped to Asia and South America. During this time the company also built trucks and engines for the Japanese military.
1937 saw the company's main plant moving to Manchuria and it was given the name Manchuria Heavy Industries Developing Co. In 1940 the first assembly kits were shipped to Dowa Jidosha Kogyo which was one of Manchuria Heavy Industries Developing companies. Then In 1944, the company moved to Nihonbashi, Tokyo, and changed its name again to Nissan Heavy Industries, Ltd., which the company kept until 1949.
Nissan Motor Company of Japan during 1952 entered into a legal agreement with the car maker Austin to assemble 2,000 Austins. They were to be constructed from imported assembled sets to sell them in Japan under the Austin trademark. The agreement was that this would have to be accomplished within three years and this goal was met. They continued to produce Austins for the following seven years. The agreement was also advantageous for Nisan as this allowed them to use the Austin patents, which it did so to develop its engines for its Datsun cars.
The British-built Austins were sold and assembled from 1953 to 1955 and the Austin A50 was independently built by Nissan and featured the new 1489 cc engine. This was sold on the Japanese market. Nissan made 20,855 Austins from 1953 to 1959. Nissan merged with the Prince Motor Company in 1966 in order to make more upmarket cars that included the Gloria. They were sold under the "Prince" name under the Japanese Nissan dealership "Nissan Prince Shop."
In the 1950s, Nissan expanded into the worldwide marketplace and they showed cars at the Los Angeles Auto Show in 1958 and even managed to sell a few that very year in the United States. Then in 1960, they went on to form the Nissan Motor Corporation U.S.A. that was headed by Yutaka Katayama. They continued to produce sporty cars, namely the Datsun Fairlady roadsters and the world-class Datsun 240Z. Nissan had become one of the world's largest leading exporters of automobiles by 1970.
Nissan then went on to develop new and modern engine designs and in 1967 they introduced the highly advanced four-cylinder overhead cam (OHC) known as the Nissan L engine. This was similar to the Mercedes-Benz OHC designs. This new engine powered the Datsun 510.
In 1969 Nissan introduced the Datsun 240Z sports car; this had a six-cylinder engine similar to the L series engine. This engine made Nissan a global sensation within the automobile world.
In 2001, Nissan opened a plant in Brazil and added further operations in 2005 in India, through Nissan Motor India Pvt. Ltd. Nissan also invested $990 million to set up a manufacturing plant in Chennai which was mainly used as a base to export their small cars to Europe. From 2014, Nissan cars are to be produced in South Korea by Renault-Samsung . The aim is to produce 80000 Nissan Rogue/X-Trail cars.