Nissan Relaunches Datsun Brand for Emerging Markets

Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn has just announced that it will be relaunching the Datsun brand for emerging markets including Indonesia, India and Russia. It will begin offering its first cars in 2014. 

Datsun will be Nissan's third brand counting Nissan and Infiniti. Ghosn said that Datsun will provide sustainable cars to "up-and-coming customers in high-growth markets."

The Datsun announcement came while Ghosn was holding a press conference on expanding a factory in Cikampek, Indonesia. The expanded factory will be able to produce 250,000 more cars a year, employ 3,300 new workers.

Datsun was the name given to Nissan vehicles in the US from the brand's introduction there in 1958 until it was phased out in 1983. When it introduced the Datsun brand to the US, Nissan used the Nissan brand on its trucks in Japan and Datsun on its cars. By the early 60s, Nissan had already begun referring more of its Japanese models as Nissans, and the name eventually took over there. However, the Datsun name lived on in the US. 

If Nissan plans to use the Datsun brand for cheaper vehicles in emerging markets, do not expect them to dig up old classics like the Dastsun Roadster or 510.