New alliance dates back to birth of diesel company in Japan in 1935

Press, 17 August 1984, Page 21

New alliance dates back to birth of diesel company in Japan in 1935

The alliance between Nissan and A.I.C. International is a new cog in a wheel that began turning in Japan in 1935, for two years after the Nissan Motor Company was founded to produce cars and trucks for the Japanese domestic market, Nihon Diesel Industries was born in Kawaguchi on the outskirts of Tokyo. The new company began to produce and market twostroke diesel engines under licence to Krupp Junkers of Germany. The name was changed to Ninsei Diesel Industries in 1950, and five years later came the introduction of uniflow-scavenging, twocycle engines from which evolved the company’s internationally - recognised UD trademark.

In 1960, the name was

changed again — to Nissan Diesel Motor Company, heralding a decade of remarkable progress. Nissan began producing compact four-cycle diesel engines and marketing UDS and UDVB diesels in 1963.

In 1968, a long-term contract was signed with the Chrysler Corporation to supply Nissan diesel engines to the American company. That year saw also the production of the first 80tonne crane carrier. The introduction of four-cycle engines for heavy duty diesel vehicles followed. While the company continued to expand with new assembly lines and manufacturing plant, the first of more than 8000 logging trucks were supplied to Russia for use in the forests of eastern Siberia and the

first turbo-charged Nissan diesel went into production. In 1975, the CM9O medium duty trucks were introduced to extend Nissan Diesel truck payload range from 4.25 to 45 tonnes..

Two years later, Nissan introduced a new cab for the CWSO series, and new concept diesel engines were added to a redesigned RD series.

By 1981, the company’s fourth assembly plant had been commissioned and in the following year a new head office was opened in Tokyo.

Today, Nissan Diesel is one of Japan’s leading manufacturers of a comprehensive line of trucks and buses and a wide variety of automotive, industrial and marine engines.