Nissan Motors was founded in 1932 by Kenjiro Den, Rokuro Aoyama, Meitaro Takeuchi and Yoshisuke Aikawa. The company is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The current president, CEO and co-chair is Carlos Ghosn. Nissan employs over 185,000 people and the company’s revenue reached $88 billion in 2007. 44.4% of Nissan is owned by Renault S.A. of France as of the 2008 calendar year but have been in an alliance together since 1999. Nissan formerly manufactured vehicles under the name of Datsun. Nissan is the third largest vehicle manufacturer in Japan and also manufactures Infiniti luxury vehicles.
Datsun was first established as a vehicle manufacturer in 1914 and the Nissan brand name wasn’t used on vehicles until the 1930s. Since the company’s inception there have been more than a handful of presidents and CEOs of the company:
o 1933-1939 Yoshisuke Aikawa
o 1939-1942 Masasuke Murakami
o 1942-1944 Genshichi Asahara
o 1944-1945 Haruto Kudo
o 1945 Takeshi Murayama
o 1945-1947 Souji Yamamoto
o 1947-1951 Taichi Minoura
o 1951-1957 Genshichi Asahara
o 1957-1973 Katsuji Kawamata
o 1973-1977 Tadahiro Iwakoshi
o 1977-1985 Takashi Ishihara
o 1985-1992 Yutaka Kume
o 1992-1996 Yoshifume Tsuji
o 1996-2000 Yoshikazu Hanawa
o 2000-present Carlos Ghosn
The presidents and CEOs of Nissan have helped develop the company into one of the top vehicle manufacturing companies in the world and they continue that tradition today. Nissan manufactures and distributes sports cars, compact cars and heavy duty pickup trucks across the world.
Per Nissan’s website, the company has tons of manufacturing plants across the globe. They are located in:
o Japan
– Oppama, Yokosuka, Kanagawa (Oppama Plant & Research Center)
– Kaminokawa, Tochigi (Tochigi Plant)
– Kanda, Fukuoka (Kyushu Plant)
– Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa (Yokohama Plant)
– Iwaki, Fukushima (Iwaki Plant)
– Hiratsuka, Kanagawa (Nissan Shatai Shonan Plant)
– Nagoya, Aichi (Aichi Machine Industry Atsuta & Eitoku Plants)
– Matsusaka, Mie (Aichi Machine Industry Matsusaka Plant)
– Tsu, Mie (Aichi Machine Industry Tsu Plant)
– Uji, Kyoto (Auto Works Kyoto)
– Ageo, Saitama (Nissan Diesel Motor, currently owned by the Volvo Group)
– Samukawa, Kanagawa (Nissan Kohki)
– Zama, Kanagawa (Zama Plant closed in 1995, currently Global Production Engineering Center and storage unit for its historic models)
o Brazil
– São José dos Pinhais, Paraná
o Indonesia
– Cikampek, West Java
o Iran
– Karaj, Tehran
o Malaysia
– Segambut, Kuala Lumpur
– Serendah, Selangor
o Mexico
– Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes
– Cuernavaca, CIVAC
o Philippines
– Santa Rosa City, Laguna
o South Africa
– Rosslyn
o Spain
– Barcelona
– Ávila
o Thailand
– Bangna, Samutprakarn
o Taiwan
– Taipei
o United Kingdom
– Sunderland, North East
o United States
– Smyrna, Tennessee
– Canton, Mississippi
– Decherd, Tennessee
Nissan Motors plans to begin selling electric cars in the year 2012 and has been trying to develop Hybrid cars and Hybrid motor parts for the past couple of years. Nissan feels that the development of their own electric car and the growing popularity for alternatively propelled cars will make their endeavor a success. The idea for the company to produce an electric car came from current company president and CEO Carlos Ghosn.
