Most of us probably know who and what Nissan is today. However, once upon a time, “Nissan” cars were sold here in the United States as “Datsun”. So, when did Datsun become Nissan, and why did Datsun change their name to Nissan, in the first place? Plus, how is it that their North American market – including us here in the US-of-A – makes so much of an impact?
Datsun is one of the most legendary car brands that we don’t see nowadays, at least not here in the US. Datsun became extinct – at least in North America – a long time ago, and it became Nissan. That’s why every “Datsun” car nowadays wears the Nissan badge, even though Datsun has a huge meaning in Nissan’s own history.
It’s a shame since Datsun cars were one of the coolest cars back in the golden era of the 60s and 70s, such as the famous 240Z. So, while we might not see the Datsun name anymore, their legacy remains. So, here’s a walk down memory lane, as we discuss just how in the world Datsun became Nissan…
The Origins Of Datsun (And Nissan)
If you didn’t know your automotive lore, Datsun was a car brand that was founded back in 1931. That’s more than 90 years ago! So, you can see why this brand has such as beloved lineage of producing some of the most impactful cars in history. As such, it has a very rich history, especially in the North American market where these cars have since become legends.
As I noted earlier, the Datsun brand was founded in 1931. However, this wasn’t the true beginning of the Datsun brand. Fact: the early roots of the Datsun and Nissan brands trace back its roots in 1914 when the DAT brand was created. They made trucks in the early days, along with their passenger vehicles, with a focus on the military in mind.
Then in the 1920s, they merged with other companies. More precisely in 1926, they merged with the Jitsuyo Jidosha Co. Ltd. Combined, this company started producing automobiles under the name of DAT Automotive Manufacturing Co. Ltd. The word “DAT” came from the Japanese word “datto”. In Japanese, “datto” means “dash off like a startled rabbit”.
This name was considered to be cool for a small little car. That’s especially for the quick, tiny cars that DAT made back in the day. However, the name Datsun came around in 1931. This name was given to the small new cars that were introduced. Namely, the Japanese government, in 1930, issued a decree that cars with below 500cc engines could be driven without a driver’s license.
The Rise (And Rise) Of Datsun
So, DAT Automobile Manufacturing company then started developing a small vehicle to fit this new segment. They then named “Datson”, as in “the son of DAT”. Later, the “Datson” name was changed in 1933 in Datsun, and this was how the Datsun brand was born. The Datsun brand has kept this name throughout history until Datsun became Nissan.
The first model of the new Datsun brand was the Datsun Type 10. Later, new models were released with bigger engines since the government allowed even engines up to 750cc to be driven without a driver’s license. The larger model was known as Type 12. In 1935, they created a production line following the example of Ford, and they also made a partnership with the British Austin car company.
Together, they produced models based on the Austin 7. Then in 1937, a war with China started, and then WWII. So, all passenger car production was shifted to wartime production. It’ll be some time before the Datsun brand turns into Nissan, but for now, let’s talk about the famous Datsun logo…
Datsun Logo
If you are a true car enthusiast, then you might know the Datsun logo well. If you don’t know the logo, then we can say that the letters of the Datsun name are all capitalized in white color and have a dark blue background, forming the Datsun logo. Completing the Datsun logo is the flag of Japan – the big red circle with a white background.
Frankly, I think that this is one of the coolest car brand logos ever produced and was implemented on cars. It’s so timeless! Even after the rebranding, Nissan still kept the same design, and they only included the Nissan name instead of the Datsun text at first. But nowadays, even though the overall shape is kept, there’s a huge difference.
The iconic red and blue colors are now gone, and the Nissan badge is only painted in silver. Overall, this is also a good design. But for the true car enthusiasts, the original Datsun logo is arguably much better looking. The next chapter is when Datsun slowly evolved into Nissan, starting with what happened in North America.
Datsun In North America
As we all know, the US and Japan were at war until 1945, and things were difficult back then when it came to bringing trade to a respectable level between these two nations. It was not until 1958 that Nissan decided to enter the American market and import some of the models that it produced. Still, these models had to comply with US regulations and were revamped to meet these rules.
With that in mind, all the Nissan models in the US were marketed and badged as Datsuns. So, there were no Nissan cars until the 60s, when Nissan started to use the Nissan name for some of the cars they imported into the USA. The first entry into the US market was in 1958 in California, and by 1959, the new company started to open up dealerships across the US.
Meanwhile, in 1960, it founded the Nissan Motor Corporation. This new company was the US branch of Nissan, which was first in charge of importing, and then manufacturing Nissan vehicles in the US. As you probably know, nowadays there are a ton of Nissan models that are manufactured domestically in the US because the demand for Nissan cars is so large.
Plus, it’s cheaper to make them here than to make these cars in Japan, and to then import them. One of the first models that came to the US was the Datsun Bluebird. This model sold really well with 100,000 units imported into the US. Then, more models followed. But when did Datsun become Nissan? This is what we’ll be covering next.
Nissan Versus Datsun
It’s worth also taking a look at Nissan’s stance against the Datsun brand. It’s important to realize why nowadays, their cars are called Nissan and not Datsun. Even though the Datsun brand was booming in the US and globally, in Japan, things were, how to say, a little bit different. In the hierarchy of the company, there was a big bias against the name Datsun.
Why was this so, not a lot of people know! However, most people assume that this was implemented because of marketing purposes. If you didn’t know, the Nissan name was given to the corporation that owned Datsun. Meanwhile, Kwamata, who was one of the top executives of Nissan, regretted in 1957 that the corporate name was not given to their cars 20 years before that.
The same was the case with Toyota. So, this new leadership was dedicated to killing the Datsun brand, instead using the Nissan name which was the official corporate name. They then did precisely that, with this name-change process starting in 1981. This was when Datsun stopped being Datsun, and it was rebranded as Nissan in the US.
The goal was to strengthen the Nissan brand globally, and then make Nissan a global brand. By doing this, Nissan executives expected to reach far more customers than they already did before and make their vehicles a lot more marketable through many different markets. They also hoped that this name change would help Nissan in the US stock market.
But the ultimate reason behind this was that Honda and Toyota already created this situation. This was when they used their corporate names as their car brand names. So, Nissan wanted to follow this example and the Nissan badge to become one of the top three Japanese car brands in the US market.
When Did Datsun Become Nissan?
So, in 1981, the process of rebranding started, which is when Datsun became Nissan. More precisely, in the fall of 1981, this transition lasted for three years, until 1983. So, why did it take so long? Well, Datsun was a very established player in the US market, which had been selling really well. So, doing this all at once was a big risk of losing a lot of customers.
This name change overall cost Nissan about $500 million. They spent $30 million only on changing the dealership signs across 1,100 Datsun dealerships around the US. While Nissan did revive the Datsun nameplate back in 2012, it was meant for emerging markets. As such, Datsun cars were only sold in Indonesia, Nepal, India, Russia, and South Africa.
In short, it’s not likely that we’ll ever see them again here in the US, where the Nissan brand has far more value than Datsun. Still, at least we did see some modern Datsun models made for other parts of the world. These are the Datsun Go, Datsun On-Do, Datsun mi-Do, Datsun redi-Go, and the Datsun Cross. Alas, it didn’t create enough of an impact, and Nissan closed its factory in India in 2022.