Business

‘Nissan reviving Datsun brand for emerging markets’

‘Nissan reviving Datsun brand for emerging markets’

March 02, 2012 | 12:00 AM

Customers look at an old Nissan “Datsun Sport S211” car in a Nissan showroom in Tokyo on November 5, 2003. Nissan Motor Co plans to revive the Datsun nameplate to sell inexpensive cars tailored for emerging markets from 2014, the Nikkei newspaper reported yesterday, as the Japanese automaker revs up its efforts to tap fast-growth countries. Nissan’s chief executive, Carlos Ghosn, has spoken of the high potential of the Datsun brand, under which most of Nissan’s cars and trucks were sold outside Japan since the company’s inception in 1934. Nissan quit using the Datsun brand in 1981, but it remains a household name in the US, the Middle East and many parts of Asia. Japan’s No 2 automaker plans to offer Datsun vehicles priced around ¥500,000 ($6,200) first in India, Indonesia and Russia, tailoring them to local needs, the Nikkei said. It hopes to sell 300,000 Datsuns a year soon, the paper said, without citing sources. A Nissan spokesman declined to confirm the report. Nissan has been pushing into emerging markets, including through a partnership with Ashok Leyland in India and a recently announced factory in Brazil, where it aims to triple market share by 2016

March 02, 2012 | 12:00 AM