Nissan names chief of new Torrance unit to consolidate company's U.S. operations.

Nissan names chief of new Torrance unit to consolidate company's U.S. operations

In a move to consolidate its operations in America, Tokyo-based Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. will move 10 domestic operations under one roof in Torrance, the $30 billion (sales) auto giant announced last week.

"If we can do everything here in the U.S., including finance, design, production and sales, we believe the cars will be better-made and better-suited for Americans," said Don Spetner, a Nissan spokesman.

The new unit, called Nissan North America Inc., is headed by Yoshikazu Hanawa, a 23-year Nissan veteran recently named chairman of Nissan Motor Corp. U.S.A. Hanawa is in charge of importing and marketing Nissan cars and trucks, and of Nissan Motor Manufacturing Corp. U.S.A., the Smyrna, Tenn.-based manufacturing unit.

Spetner said Nissan chose Torrance as the headquarters for Nissan North America after considering a number of cities, among them Detroit, New York and Washington, D.C. Torrance is closest to Japan and is already the home of Nissan Motor Corp., which employs 3,500 workers.

The shift of power from Tokyo to Torrance is part of a plan to expand Nissan's overseas operations, a plan that calls for a new European unit in The Netherlands, Nissan Europe N.V., to coordinate activities there.

Nissan opened its Tennessee manufacturing plant in in 1983. The plant in 1989 produced 234,000 cars and trucks, or about 33 percent of the total 700,000 vehicles it sold in the United States that year. The other nine Nissan subsidiaries here engage in research and development, design, finance and the importing industrial machinery.

Another part of the plan to expand here includes hiring Americans as key management team members of these subsidiaries.

"I think ultimately you will see Americans heading each of the subsidiaries," Spetner said.

Although Nissan North America has begun with a relatively small 30 employees, it will expand greatly in the next few months, said Spetner. It will eventually include Nissan's Canadian and Mexican subsidiaries, Nissan Canada Inc. and Nissan Mexicana S.A., which manufactures automobiles in Mexico. It will also include sophisticated computer information networks that are already on-line in Europe.