Datsun: A Legacy Built Over A 100 Years

India is one country where Japanese technology has flourished, especially in the automotive sector. With products like the redi-GO, Datsun is one of those carmakers that offer easy access to reliable Japanese technology in automobiles in India. But it’s not the first time Datsun has done that.

DAT Car, a motor vehicle launched in 1915, was the first small car to come out of the Kwaishinsha Motor Works factory. Kwaishinsha Motor Works was founded in 1911 by Masujiro Hashimoto, a Japanese engineer and a businessman, and it started proceedings by making large and expensive cars. But it was the relatively small DAT Car that brought the company on the automotive map and it was this car that led to the renaming of the company to Datsun later. The word ‘DAT’ stood for the first letter of the family names of the individuals who were behind this project - Kenjiro Den, Rokuro Aoyama and Meitaro Takeuchi.

The DAT Car was based on Hashimoto’s design and it won the Bronze Prize at the Taisho Exposition in Tokyo in 1914. It was the first real appreciation for the company, and thus the carmaker that always focused on expensive big cars got a new direction and thought of making cars -- a luxury back then -- affordable. But the DAT Car was still relatively bigger and the demand for small cars in Japan was growing.

Before coming up with its first small car prototype, which had a 495cc engine under its hood, Kwaishinsha Motor Works merged with Jitsuyo Jidosha Seizo in 1926 to establish DAT Jidosha Seizo. In 1931, the new company affiliated with Tobata Foundry, a company founded earlier by Aikawa Yoshisuke. It was during this time that Datsun cars were born. At first, the company’s small car was christened ‘Datson’ (meaning the ‘Son of Dat’). But later, the name was tweaked to be read as ‘Datsun’ as the word ‘son’ in Japanese meant ‘loss’, something the brand didn’t stand for.

Datsun’s first major success came in the year 1958 when one of its cars, the 210, won its first competitive title in Australia. The Australian Rally was regarded as one of the longest and toughest rallies of its time and Datsun’s win proved the fact that their cars were reliable. Ultimately, the 210 became the company’s first car to be exported from Japan.

In the same year in which it won the gruelling Australian Rally, the 210 was exported to North America, which became the first market ever to receive this low-cost car outside Japan. Later, the carmaker also introduced the Bluebird 310, a completely new family car, in a bid to expand into other segments. Over the years Datsun came to be known for pricing its cars attractively, innovation in products, rich heritage and racing culture. In 1986, however, the Datsun brand was phased out by its owner, Nissan. Almost 30 years later, in 2015, Nissan resurrected the Datsun brand. And the idea, again, was to develop affordable and reliable cars, this time for emerging markets. Datsun set out on a journey to redefine small cars by not just making them attractive, but also innovative and safe. Soon after, the Japanese carmaker entered the Indian market with the GO hatchback and later introduced a 7-seater car based on the GO, the GO+. The GO+ is still one of the most affordable 7-seater cars you can buy in the country. Again, Datsun managed to bring innovation and reliability at an attractive price.

Before Datsun could even complete three years in India, the carmaker rolled out yet another model in 2016, the redi-GO. This Urban Cross vehicle helped the company achieve great success in a tough market like India where there is stiff competition in the entry-level hatchback segment.

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Datsun has been producing quality reliable products for the masses for about a 100 years now. It has stayed true to its philosophy ever since its inception, and now, the Japanese carmaker provides value-for-money products in multiple countries like India, South Africa, Russia and Kazakhstan.  

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