Tokyo -- Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. today announced that it had reached an agreement with Aoyama Gakuin University for Nissan to acquire the latter's Atsugi campus site. The site will be used to reinforce the company's R&D facilities in Japan. The transaction will conclude in March 2003.
The site, which is 3.5 kilometers from Nissan's Technical Center (NTC) in Kanagawa Prefecture's Atsugi City, covers an extensive area of 200,000 square meters.
Nissan is extending its R&D facilities in order to support the company's plans to grow its range of products under its new business plan, Nissan 180. NTC employs 5,700 engineers, technicians and staff in Atsugi. Plans are underway in 2002 to reinforce Nissan's R&D in Japan by an additional one thousand, mainly engineers.
NTC also counts on existing Nissan R&D centers in North America and Europe.
On February 8 of this year, Nissan's President & CEO Carlos Ghosn announced that the Nissan Revival Plan (NRP), originally intended to bring the company back to significant profitability in three years, will reach its commitments one year earlier than scheduled. As a result, the subsequent 3-year growth plan, Nissan 180, will be launched in April 2002.
Nissan 180, aiming for 1 million additional unit sales on an annualized basis at the end of FY2004, 8 percent operating margin, and "zero debt," is a company-wide profitable growth plan.
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