Nissan Motor Company entered the Philippine market in 1969 with the appointment of Universal Motors Corporation (UMC) as the authorized assembler and distributor of Datsun cars and pickups. UMC started assembling vehicles in their Pasong Tamo, Makati facility. Included in the vehicles assembled were the Datsun 620 pick up with the 1.5 L J15 I4 engine. Later, it brought in the Datsun 720 Double Cab pick-up with the carbureted L20B I4. It also did pre-delivery inspection on the Nissan Cedric (Series 130, also called the Datsun 2400 Super Six), the Nissan Laurel and the Nissan Bluebird.
In 1983, Nissan Motor Company established Pilipinas Nissan, Inc. (PNI), a joint-venture with Marubeni, to assemble and distribute Nissan passenger cars. The company took over the former Volkswagen (DMG, Inc.) assembly plant in E. Rodriguez Sr. Ave., Quezon City and refitted it to meet the specifications required by Nissan Japan. The first models it assembled were the Nissan Pulsar (N12) and the Nissan Stanza (T11, known elsewhere as the Nissan Violet). By this time, UMC focused on the Nissan light commercial vehicles (SUVs and pickups). In November 1991, PNI was renamed Nissan Motor Philippines, Inc. (NMPI). In September 2000, the Yulon group acquired control of NMPI from Nissan Motor Company.
In September 2013, Nissan Motor Company reorganized its Philippine business with the establishment of Nissan Philippines, Inc. (NPI) as the sole national sales company for the Philippines, assuming direct control over the entire Philippine operations of Nissan. The new company is a joint-venture between Nissan Motor Company (51%), UMC (24.5%) and Yulon (24.5%).[2] With the establishment of the new company, UMC and NMPI (renamed Univation Motor Philippines, Inc. in October 2014, after the Nissan reorganization) will continue as assemblers for NPI.
In January 2021, Nissan Philippines announced that it will shut down its plant in Santa Rosa, Laguna in March. Ceasing local production of the Nissan Almera in which it has been assembling in the Santa Rosa plant since 2013. Although its marketing and distribution network will still continue selling its vehicles produced in Thailand and Japan.[3]
