Nissan’s 90 years of innovation

In its 90 years of history, Nissan has continued on its own path, bringing innovation and emotion to the automotive sector, with the aim of always working to create something that can go beyond conventions, because only by daring is it possible to create projects that can gain public approval. It is no coincidence that since 1947 it began to innovate, creating its first electric vehicle, called Tama, and offered in taxi and van configurations.
In this journey through the salient stages of the brand, we must not forget the arrival of the first generation Fairlady Z, in 1960, a car that sold over 25,000 units in the United States in 7 generations.

The sporting side of Nissan, however, did not exclude that relating to efficiency, as demonstrated by the 1973 Sunny, a car that obtained first prize in the tests of the US environmental agency.
But a brand full of inventiveness could not fail to explore other sectors, and so in 1988 the Patrol GR arrived, the first 4×4 in history to adopt the detachable stabilizer bar. Furthermore, to better communicate the potential of its products, in the same year, in Italy, Nissan was the first company to create a website dedicated to cars and identified with the domain www.nissan.it. Also in the beautiful country, in 1992, the Micra changed the rules of the game in the small car segment, thanks to a rich standard equipment which included accessories such as power steering, as well as first-rate technical elements such as the mutilink suspension, the ‘abs, and 16V engines.
In 1999 Nissan returned to speaking the language of sports cars, and did so in a disruptive way with the GT-R, to the point that the very fast Japanese car became an icon of Fast & Furious 4. But the brand’s innovations, obviously, did not stop, and saw the arrival in 2007 of the Qashqai, a car that practically invented the compact crossover segment, receiving the much desired 5 EuroNcap stars, and bringing the SUV within the reach of all Italians, so much so that it became the best-selling crossover ever in our village.
With the Juke, in 2011, the crossover concept was extended to the B segment, while a year earlier, in 2010, the Leaf became the first electric car created electric for production.
This battery-powered car achieved an important record in 2013, that of becoming the best-selling electric car ever, with over 50,000 units.
Nissan’s automotive revolution continues to the present day, with e-Power, the plug-free electric vehicle, launched in Italy in 2022: an innovation within everyone’s reach.
To date, more than half of Qashqai sales come from models with e-Power technology, which has already won over 80,000 customers in Europe.
The latest addition to the range, in 2023, was the Ariya, featuring electric all-wheel drive and its price list, thanks to government incentives, currently starts at 34,900 euros, to promote accessibility to electric cars. Cars which, year after year, will be increasingly accessible, so much so that Nissan will make a precise choice: that of launching only electric cars on the European market, in order to have the entire battery-powered range by 2030. All this will happen through a plan for a zero-emission future which will involve an investment of 16 billion euros globally by 2030. A project which includes the creation of the first electric vehicle production ecosystem in the world, called EV 36Zero; and the development of solid-state batteries, which will cost less than half of current ones, and can be recharged in a third of the time.

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