Nissan Annual Report 2004 45
OUR WORK
Testing at Nissan Advanced Crash Laboratory CARWINGS telematics system Aluminum parts
500
400
(Billion yen) (% of net revenue)
300
200
100
0
5
4
3
2
1
0’00 ’01 ’02 ’03 ’04
232 262 300
354 3983.8% 4.2% 4.4%
4.8%
4.6%
R&D Investment
5,000
4,000
(xxxxxxx)
3,000
2,000
1,000
0 ’99 ’00 ’01 ’02 ’03
Patent
120
100
80
60
40
20
0 ’00 ’01 ’02 ’03 ’04
Research Paper
The number of research papers presented at JSME (The Japan Society of
Mechanical Engineers), JSAE (The Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan), SAE
(The Society of Automotive Engineers), FISITA (The International Federation of
Automotive Engineering Societies)
and much more collaboration. The core engineering is
common to all—that’s why the different organizations can
work together so closely, and why we’re more efficient
today. While each engineering center remains responsible
for meeting the specific tastes or specifications that its
local market demands, we have global oversight to ensure
consistency, with NTC supervising overall resource
management and facility investment.
We are building on these strengths through greater
collaboration with our suppliers—our project partners—and
doing it much further upstream. For example, we are
creating a facility at the NATC where we can disclose our
plans to suppliers during the very early planning stages.
This means we have to be much more open than before,
but in return we will gain a great deal from the ideas our
partners bring. 
The Alliance with Renault is another major strength for
Nissan R&D. We identify areas of mutual interest and
decide which party will develop specific projects. Our basic
operating principle is to avoid duplicated efforts. We can
work separately, or together if there is mutual interest in
the development. For example, we have studied fuel-cell
vehicles—FCVs—as well as, advanced materials, safety,
and other areas together. Our shared goal is to maximize
the benefits so we will rank among the top three entities in
technology worldwide.