Nissan Motors was founded in 1932 by Kenjiro Den, Rokuro Aoyama, Meitaro Takeuchi, and Yoshisuke Aikawa. The company is based in Tokyo, Japan. The current president, CEO and co-chair is Carlos Ghosn. Nissan employs more than 185,000 people and the company’s revenues reached $ 88 billion in 2007. Nissan is owned 44.4% by Renault SA of France in calendar year 2008, but they have been in an alliance since 1999 Nissan previously made vehicles under the Datsun name. 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 was not used in vehicles until the 1930s. Since the company’s inception, there have been more than a handful of company presidents and CEOs:
o 1933-1939 Yoshisuke Aikawa
o 1939-1942 Masasuke Murakami
1942-1944 Genshichi Asahara
or 1944-1945 Haruto Kudo
[1945TakeshiMurayama
[1945-1947SoujiYamamoto
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
1985-1992 Yutaka Kume
o 1992-1996 Yoshifume Tsuji
1996-2000 Yoshikazu Hanawa
2000-present Carlos Ghosn
Nissan’s presidents and CEOs have helped build the company into one of the world’s leading vehicle manufacturers and continue that tradition today. Nissan manufactures and distributes sports cars, compact cars, and heavy-duty pickup trucks around the world.
According to Nissan’s website, the company has tons of manufacturing plants around the world. They are located in:
or Japan
– Oppama, Yokosuka, Kanagawa (Oppama Plant and 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 (Atsuta and Eitoku plants of Aichi machine industry)
– 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)
or Brazil
– São José dos Pinhais, Paraná
or Indonesia
– Cikampek, West Java
or Iran
– Karaj, Tehran
or Malaysia
– Segambut, Kuala Lumpur
– Serendah, Selangor
or Mexico
– Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes
– Cuernavaca, CIVAC
or Philippines
– City of Santa Rosa, Laguna
or South Africa
– Rosslyn
or Spain
– Barcelona
– Avila
or Thailand
– Bangna, Samutprakarn
or Taiwan
– Taipei
or United Kingdom
– Sunderland, northeast
or United States
– Smyrna, Tennessee
– Canton, Mississippi
– Decherd, Tennessee
Nissan Motors plans to start selling electric cars in 2012 and has been trying to develop hybrid cars and hybrid engine parts for the past two years. Nissan feels that the development of its own electric car and the growing popularity of reciprocating cars will make its endeavor a success. The idea for the company to produce an electric car came from the current president and CEO of the company, Carlos Ghosn.