Nissan Expands The NISMO Brand

By William Maley

Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com

February 26, 2013

Nissan is in the midst of expanding its NISMO brand. At the Chicago Auto Show, Nissan unveiled the new Juke NISMO and refreshed 370Z NISMO. Today at in Yokohama, Japan. CEO Carlos Ghosn made three key announcements for the future of NISMO.

The first was that NISMO was moving to a new facility that offers more engineering and development resources. NISMO's 180 employees will have access to a workshop, engine shop, fabrication room, and carbon composite processes at the new facility. Not moving is the production of NISMO vehicles; they will be built alongside their standard counterparts.

Second was that NISMO would be introducing a their version of the GT-R supercar sometime next year. No word on what the GT-R NISMO will be packing power wise.

"It would be unthinkable for us to develop a range of NISMO road cars without including the GT-R. The standard road car is a global supercar and the GT-R's performance on track reflects the passion and talents of the NISMO team. The GT-R NISMO will be special and I can't wait to drive it." said Ghosn.

Finally, Ghosn announced that at the 2014 Le Mans 24 Hours, Nissan would be racing with a “pioneering race car incorporating electric technology". The race car will be built by NISMO and will occupy a special section of the Le Mans grid reserved for innovative technologies, Garage 56.

“We will return to Le Mans with a vehicle that will act as a high-speed test bed in the harshest of environments for both our road car and race car electric vehicle technology,” said Ghosn.

Source: Nissan

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected]or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

Press Release is on Page 2

Nissan Launches New Era for NISMO as its Global Performance Car and Motorsports Brand

• Redeveloped global headquarters in Yokohama heralds new era for NISMO
  
• NISMO to create a range of affordable performance Nissan models from small cars to flagship sports cars
  
• Juke NISMO is the first, followed by new 2014 370Z NISMO
  
• New GT-R NISMO confirmed, the ultimate Nissan performance supercar
  
• Nissan’s global motorsports program to be managed by NISMO
  

YOKOHAMA, Japan – Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. today kicked off a new era for NISMO, confirming it as Nissan’s exclusive global performance car and motorsports brand and officially opening the new NISMO global headquarters and development center in Yokohama, Japan.

NISMO is already well-known to motorsports and performance car enthusiasts in Japan and to millions of global gaming enthusiasts. Now, NISMO is poised for accelerated global impact, enhancing Nissan’s reputation for innovation and excitement with a new line-up of sporty Nissan production vehicles.

In a special ceremony today, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn declared the new headquarters open and explained how NISMO will play an even more prominent role for the company’s performance car and motorsports activities.

“NISMO will democratize performance and bring new excitement to the Nissan portfolio with a broader range of affordable and innovative performance models for more markets and more people,” said Mr. Ghosn. “Whether it’s a small car or a sports car, if it’s wearing the NISMO badge it offers something special – quality, functionality, and efficiency, with NISMO’s distinctive styling, sporty handling and dynamic performance capabilities.”

The first new Nissan production vehicle to get the NISMO treatment, the Juke NISMO, is already on sale in Europe and Japan and launches in the United States in the spring.

A new version of the 370Z NISMO for European markets is the next NISMO vehicle, which made its world debut earlier this month and builds on the platform of Nissan’s most popular and accessible sports car. The 370Z NISMO is now in its second generation in the U.S., with a revised 2014 370Z NISMO set for sale this summer.

Nissan is promising a rapid pace of introduction of even more NISMO models – at least one model every year during the Nissan Power88 period, encompassing the breadth of the Nissan model range. This will include the flagship of Nissan’s performance and technology efforts, the Nissan GT-R.

“It would be unthinkable for us to develop a range of NISMO road cars without including the GT-R,” said Mr. Ghosn. “The standard production model is a global supercar and the GT-R’s performance on track reflects the passion and talents of the NISMO team. The GT-R NISMO will be special and I can’t wait to drive it.”

A New Home for NISMO

Nissan has invested in an entirely new facility for NISMO’s operations, redeveloping a former production site to give it the resources for expanding beyond motorsports engineering to encompass performance car development alongside Nissan. The new headquarters facility allows the NISMO team to be co-located in one place, bringing together the functional areas for NISMO’s key activities and technical and competition expertise under one roof.

The 180-strong team is now located inside Nissan’s Powertrain Engineering complex. The workshop, engine shop, rooms for fabrication, grinding and carbon composite processes are consolidated into the same floor space along with the parts warehouse. A new larger showroom allows up to eight vehicles to be displayed, while the retail area is now almost twice the size of the previous store in the Omori factory.

“This is a great move for NISMO as we can now shift gears to operate more efficiently and expand the brand globally,” explained NISMO President Shoichi Miyatani.

“NISMO is a key element in Nissan’s future global vehicle and motorsports strategy and we will quickly establish it as Nissan’s exclusive performance brand,” he added. “This is the first time that all of our team has been located together, and the entire facility will become a hothouse of passion and performance.”

The NISMO Spirit

At the heart of each new NISMO model will be a consistent DNA focused on delivering quality, functionality, and efficiency in everyday driving with NISMO’s distinctive styling, sporty handling and dynamic performance capabilities.

Nissan’s new range of NISMO performance models will be built on the same production lines as their standard counterparts, which combined with inspiration taken from decades of racing and tuning expertise means that the NISMO brand ensures fully integrated performance enhancements.

Every modification NISMO makes to a production car will be functional and targeted to improve on-road performance and presence. The spirit of NISMO relies on its proud motorsports heritage and a maverick engineering philosophy. This spirit will be reflected in every new NISMO model with efficient performance, accessible and advanced technology, and bold, smart design, all of which embody Nissan’s philosophy of “innovation that excites.”

Connecting the Virtual with the Real

NISMO is known around the world by millions through the virtual world of driving simulation games. In fact, the first opportunity to drive a Nissan Juke NISMO was provided virtually through Gameloft’s Asphalt 7: Heat.

Now, at the same time as NISMO is moving from race track to road, it is also moving from the virtual world to the real world as, for the first time in many markets around the world, a range of affordable NISMO-badged cars will be available from Nissan dealers.

“For many would-be NISMO customers, the only way to experience a NISMO performance car has been through a game like Sony’s Gran Turismo® series,” said Simon Sproule, Nissan’s corporate vice president for Marketing and Communications. “Now we can bring them into the family of Nissan owners with exciting, real NISMO cars created by a dedicated and experienced team that is fully linked to the digital world and well aware of what these new customers are looking for in a performance road car.”

Performance for the Road and Track

The spirit and inspiration for NISMO started with a group of maverick Nissan engineers almost 50 years ago.

In their efforts to boost car sales through racing success, they shoehorned a powerful engine into an ordinary Nissan sedan to create the first of a legendary line of sporty road cars with the Nissan Skyline 2000GT. What came next was a run of highly successful competition and performance vehicles in Japan, culminating in the birth of NISMO itself in 1984.

With the digital generation, Nissan realized the power of the NISMO legend by working with game creators to create both real and virtual stars and expose a whole generation to the potential for tuning and winning in these cars. Last year alone, over 500 million virtual miles were driven in Nissan vehicles on Gran Turismo®5 for PlayStation®3.

Now, as NISMO accelerates to become a global performance car brand specializing in delivering affordable, exciting and innovative performance versions of Nissan cars, the lessons learned from almost half a century of racing can be applied consistently to give drivers a surprising and rewarding ownership experience.

NISMO Expands Role in Motorsports

NISMO’s new charter will also impact Nissan’s future motorsports activities, where it is expected to boldly enhance Nissan’s reputation for excitement and innovation. NISMO is taking on global responsibility for managing Nissan’s motorsports program, which includes top level competition in every region of the world.

“Nissan’s commitment to a variety of motorsports programs around the world from the Altima in the Australian V8 Supercars to Super GT in Japan continues, but we also intend to surprise people by exploring advanced forms of motorsports,” explained Miyatani. “Our spirit of pushing the boundaries even further helps us to raise awareness of NISMO around the world but, more importantly, it means we can transfer the lessons we learn into tangible benefits for our customers, whether for NISMO production cars, race cars or tuning parts.”