Nissan is a Japanese company elongated as Nissan Motor Corporation Limited. It was established on the 26th of December, 1933. It had so many founding fathers, viz. Masujiro Hashimoto, Rokuro Aoyama, Yoshisuke Aikawa, Kenjiro Den, Meitaro Takeuchi, William R. Gorham. The current CEO is Makoto Uchida.
The current owner is Renault. It is a multinational company selling automobiles. The brand names associated are Infiniti, Nissan, Datsun, etc. On top of that, they have a in-house sports car tuning division called Nismo.
Nissan got its name from the Nissan group known as Nissan zaibatsu. The headquarter is situated in Nishi-Ku, Yokohama. It is in partnership with Renault and Mitsubishi. The alliance is called Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi. Mitsubishi is also a Japanese company, and Renault is a French company.
Nissan – History
Nissan was one of the most powerful businesses. Being the most powerful, they took control of Datsun (Datson changed to Datsun) cars produced by Kaishinsha Motor Car Works, which was involved in production for the military. Then even Nissan was involved in the production of trucks, cars, and airplanes for the army.
The initial changes
The company underwent so many changes, and then later, they had some connection with America. They had recruited an American engineer named William R. Gorham, and later with the Detroit visit, these acted as the seeds sown for the fruit Nissan is enjoying now. Then with the production of Austin 7s in 1934, the international journey began.
The mergers
Due to the Korean wars in 1953, the company was hit badly. But later it grew again till 1973. Further, there were companies like Prine, which merged with Nissan.
Even with the oil crisis in 1973, Nissan was able to pull it off with its small car, the economically good Nissan Sunny. It further expanded in the markets of Taiwan, Australia, South Africa, etc.
The rise of Nissan
The Chicken Tax in the 1980s brought new changes; Nissan began making factories in the U.S. Further, they expanded in the European market, too, with the help of Greece and later Italy.
They had a plant in India too. Even after corporate unrest in 2001, the company still expanded.
Nissan Brand values
Nissan is known for its innovative style of cars and strategic plans to survive in the fast-growing market.
The statistics
In 2013, according to the statistics, Nissan held the 6th position for the production of automobiles, and the alliance of Nissan-Renault together was the 4th largest producer. It has 15% of shares in Renault, which are all non-voting shares.
Renault has 43.4% shares in Nissan, and those are the voting shares. Nissan also has 34% of the voting shares in Mitsubishi.
Further, it emerged as the largest producer in 2014 in North America.
It sells about 3,20,000 electric vehicles, which makes it the largest producer in the world, and Nissan LEAF achieves the top rank of being sold the most among all electric vehicles and can be recharged easily from even a wall socket or a battery carried.
The company has 139,000 employees working under the umbrella. By the statistics of 2017, the revenue generated was ¥ 11.95 trillion, with the production output being 5,556,241 units in the year 2016.
Nissan Brand strategies
Beauty to win over the hearts
The company used beautiful ladies as female attendants to show off their products who were named Miss Fairlady. There were competitions held for the selection of Miss Fairlady.
They showcased their products in the Summer Olympics of 1964. The company had started the Miss Fairlady competition in the 1960s, and they still continue to do it.
Growth in the foreign markets
Instead of just reserving itself to the country, the company had the vision to expand in foreign markets, which they started long back in the 1950s. It is a highly accepted brand in countries like Mexico, Russia, and China.
They had a branch company in the States which was known as Nissan Motor Corporation U.S.A, which was situated in California.
The 1970s were the ruling years for Nissan due to the expansion in the foreign market, which had become one of the largest exporters of automobiles.
Other car companies, in collaboration
Companies like Ford Motor Company, Luxgen, Alfa Romeo, Volkswagen, General Motors, and LDV had some sort of collaboration with Nissan.
In the Philippines, Luxgen assembles the car with Nissan to show solidarity. Also, Ford to show the collaboration had produced cars with similar models to Nissan, and Nissan too did it in Australia and further with all the companies mentioned.
The alliance with Renault was fruitful as Renault saved the company during the crisis but was equally concerned about the Japanese culture and was eventually awarded 2004 the Medal of Honors by the Japanese Government.
Another collaboration that came to light was the collaboration with Mitsubishi.
High-end products
The products range from sports cars to trucks to electric vehicles to autonomous and non-autonomous cars. The cars and trucks were popular in foreign markets too.
The electric car got it to the first rank in the world for all-electric automobiles. Nissan LEAF was a car with all-electric features.
Research and development
The research center is in Yokosuka, in the Oppama Plant site; it was the Navy base earlier. Nissan Technical Center employed about 9,500 people for product development, designing, etc.
There are so many Nissan Technical Centers in other countries too.
Later in 2007, the company went for advanced research and development with the opening of NATC (Nissan Advance Technology Center). It has two courses in Japan Hokkaido and Yokosuka.
Future strategies
The Infiniti vehicles will be all-electric or hybrid from 2021, which will probably increase sales considering the current scenarios. Due to year after year loss, the company considered laying off employees for the next 3 years in 2019.
They are planning to further expand in the foreign market like India is the potential for domestic sales. The cars produced can also be exported, and also the next five years were considered the year of multifold development. They are planning to invest more in advertisements.
They have been working on electrification, connectivity, autonomous driving, and mobility services. They are trying for full internet connectivity.
This will help the overall integration of the vehicle and help the company’s data management. It wants to introduce a complete ProPilot safety suite by 2022.
The company has planned to launch just all-electric or hybrid vehicles.
The company will also focus on increasing sustainability in all possible ways.
Conclusion
Nissan has been one of the most efficient companies and thus caters to the needs of people. They have put forth the best service they can provide to the users.
Even at the time of the financial crisis of the company, it was able to stand by coming into an alliance with other automobile companies, and with this, they have proven survival, work, and service are more important than name and fame.
It is a company that can rise from the ashes again. It needs to invest more in enhancing the existing products and focus more on the integrity of the overall product and it can increase the product range too.
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