Cars and Drivers

Is That a Nissan? No, it’s a Datsun.

Beginning in 2014, Nissan Motor Co. (OTC: NSANY.PK) will begin selling cars in the emerging markets of India, Russia, and Indonesia under the ‘Datsun’ brand. Nissan stopped using the Datsun name in 1981.

The rebirth of Datsun will be announced formally tomorrow, but a reasonable guess is that the company wants a unique brand for cars priced at the low end of the market, retaining the Nissan brand for more costly models.

In India, Nissan trails far behind market leader Maruti Suzuki’s 42% share and Hyundai’s 19% share with just 1.5% of total sales. In Indonesia, there are currently only 32 cars for every 1,000 people, a proportion Nissan expects to double by 2017.

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