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Nissan Celebrates 50 Years of Design LeadershipOfficially, the department is known as Nissan Design and this year it celebrates its 50th anniversary of being a definitive influence on motoring style and performance.
In the past four years alone, Nissan designers have developed 23 new models and 19 concept cars. At Nissan, they call it the 'imagination factory' – an apt name for a department that has half a century of experience in shaping some of the world's most popular and successful cars.
Some can even trace their roots back to the early days of the original 1954 design department which was then the powerhouse of the Datsun brand. Among its early classics were the Fairlady 1500 roadster and the Bluebird 310 sedan, forerunners of the Fairlady Z and the 240Z which have evolved into today's Nissan 350Z.
Currently, Nissan's design department employs some 700 people in six design centres: three in Japan, two in the US, and one in the UK. Heading the department is Shiro Nakamura, who has now fulfilled a boyhood dream of creating vehicles that would be driven and admired all over the world.
Nakamura is recognised as one of the most influential designers in the international auto industry and was general manager of Isuzu's design centre when Nissan chief executive Carlos Ghosn persuaded him to become Nissan's chief designer.
Ghosn's bold plan for a Nissan rena
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10/11/2004 | Viewed 6,692 time(s)
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