It’s been more than two decades since Nissan Motors phased out its Datsun brand to strengthen its own company name.
But times and circumstances changes and here we are with Nissan now planning to wake up its old Datsun brand from the dead, according to a report from Japanese business daily Nikkei that was forwarded by Reuters.
The newspaper said that Nissan wants to use the Datsun brand name on a new lineup of low cost vehicles tailor made for emerging markets starting from 2014. The move is reminiscent of Renault’s decision to buy out the Romanian automaker Dacia in 1999 for the same purpose.
Nikkei said that Datsun’s new range of vehicles will be priced at around 500,000 yen (equal to US$6,200 or €4,630 at the current exchange rates) and at launch will be manufactured and sold in India, Indonesia and Russia.
Nissan officials told the newspaper that they expect annual sales of around 300,000 units.
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