It formerly marketed vehicles under the "Datsun" brand name and is one of the largest car manufacturers. The company's main offices are located in the Ginza area of Chūō, Tokyo. In 1999, Nissan entered an alliance with Renault S.A. of France, which owns 44.4% of Nissan as of 2008. Nissan is among the top three Asian (also known as the Japanese Big 3 Automakers) rivals of the "Big Three" in the U.S. Currently they are the third largest Japanese car manufacturer. It also manufactures the Infiniti luxury brand.

The Nissan VQ engines, of V6 configuration, have featured among Ward's 10 Best Engines for 14 straight years, since the award's inception. For the truck and bus maker "Nissan Diesel," it is a separate company from Nissan Motors, please see UD instead.

The pronunciation of its name is different in different markets. In the U.S., the brand is , while in the UK it is /ˈnɪsæn/. In Japanese, it is IPA2: nisːãɴ.

Beginnings of Datsun name from 1914

In 1914, the , established three years earlier, in Azabu-Hiroo District in Tokyo, built the first DAT. The new car's name was an acronym of the company's partners' family names:

• .

In 1926 the Tokyo-based DAT Motors merged with the Osaka-based a.k.a. Jitsuyo Motors (established 1919, as a Kubota subsidiary) to become in Osaka until 1932.

In 1931, DAT came out with a new smaller car, the first "Datson", meaning "Son of DAT". Later in 1933 after Nissan took control of DAT Motors, the last syllable of Datson was changed to "sun", because "son" also means "loss" (損) in Japanese, hence the name .

In 1933, the company name was Nipponized to and was moved to Yokohama.

Nissan name first used in 1930s

Nissan would eventually grow to include 74 firms, and to be the fourth-largest combine in Japan during World War II.

In 1931, Aikawa purchased controlling(?) shares in DAT Motors, and then in 1933 it merged Tobata Casting's automobile parts department with DAT Motors. As Tobata Casting was a Nissan company, this was the beginning of Nissan's automobile manufacturing.

Nissan Motors founded in 1934

In 1934, Aikawa "separated the expanded automobile parts division of Tobata Casting and incorporated it as a new subsidiary, which he named Nissan Motor (Nissan)". . The shareholders of the new company however were not enthusiastic about the prospects of the automobile in Japan, so Aikawa bought out all the Tobata Casting shareholders (using capital from Nippon Industries) in June, 1934. At this time Nissan Motors effectively became owned by Nippon Sangyo and Hitachi.