A couple of weeks back, we told you about the rumors regarding Nissan’s plans to revive its Datsun brand for emerging markets. Today, Renault-Nissan Alliance CEO Carlos Ghosn made it official during a visit to Indonesia where he met with the country’s president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
While addressing the media, Ghosn announced the return of the Datsun brand, which will become Nissan’s third global brand after Nissan and Infiniti, while also revealing the firm’s new logo.
“Datsun represents 80 years of accumulated Japanese carmaking expertise and is a important part of Nissan’s DNA,” the automaker said in a statement.
The Datsun moniker was first used in Japan in 1931 with Nissan making the decision to change the name in 1981, though the process took a few years to complete.
Ghosn said that Datsun vehicles will initially go on sale in India, Indonesia, and Russia starting from 2014.
“It’s a green car, affordable car, small displacement, high local content,” Ghosn said of the Datsun, according to Reuters. “It’s going to be a generous car,” he added.
During his visit to Indonesia, Ghosn announced measures to strengthen its production base and sales presence in the country by increasing capacity to 250,000 units annually by 2014, with the workforce expanding to 3,300. In addition, the firm’s sales outlets are planned to increase to 150 by 2015. To do so, the company will invest 33 billion yen (US$396 million or €303 million).
“Nissan is bringing new jobs and new vehicles to Indonesia,” said Ghosn. “We are going to expand our production capability and offer a new and exciting product line here.”
