BANGKOK, Thailand – Nissan today announced the grand opening of the Nissan Motor Asia Pacific (NMAP) R&D Test Center in Thailand.
The new test center will be the main R&D hub for ASEAN to better address customer needs in the region and to align more quickly to market requirements. The scope will be enlarged from the current quality assurance for product launches to the upstream product development phase of evaluation tests for trial prototypes. NMAP R&D test center will primarily service the five ASEAN countries of Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand. The facility also will provide testing for more than 90 countries around the world.
Thailand has been a strategic market for Nissan in the Asia Pacific region since the establishment of the R&D center in 2003. NMAP today boasts an R&D center with industry-first testing facilities in Thailand: the anechoic chamber, acoustic chamber and vibration simulator with environment chamber. An additional investment of more than 1 billion Thai baht has been made to this 6,600 square meter facility. By the end of fiscal year 2016, a total of 330 staff will be employed, with local engineers trained in Japan to attain professional skillsets in order to operate the testing facilities.
Presiding over the official opening, Deputy Prime Minister Dr. Somkid said, "It is our great pleasure to hear that Nissan R&D Center will help enhance Thai Human Resources Development in the areas of Automotive Technology and Innovation. Moreover, the investment on the R&D in Thailand will boost Thai economy growth with domestic and export demand of production from present to future."
Kazutaka Nambu, President of Nissan Motor (Thailand) Co., Ltd., emphasized that the realization of this R&D center is a tribute to the Kingdom's skilled workforce, competitive location, strong supply chain and effective policy support from the Thai Government. "NMAP R&D Test Center represents an important milestone not only for Nissan's presence here in the Kingdom of Thailand but also in the overall development of Thailand's dynamic automobile industry," he said.
A total of 12 models will be tested at the test center, including Nissan's core model Navara, the bestselling eco car Almera and the X-Trail Hybrid.
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About Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
Nissan is a global full-line vehicle manufacturer that sells more than 60 models under the Nissan, Infiniti and Datsun brands. In fiscal year 2014, the company sold more than 5.3 million vehicles globally, generating revenue of 11.3 trillion yen. Nissan engineers, manufactures and markets the world's bestselling, all-electric vehicle in history, the Nissan LEAF. Nissan's global headquarters in Yokohama, Japan, manages operations in six regions: ASEAN & Oceana; Africa, Middle East & India; China; Europe; Latin America and North America. Nissan has a global workforce of 247,500, and has been partnered with French manufacturer Renault under the Renault-Nissan Alliance since March 1999.
About Nissan Motor Asia Pacific Co., Ltd.
Nissan Motor Asia Pacific was established in Bangkok, Thailand in 2011 as a subsidiary of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., to act as the regional headquarters for marketing and sales, R&D, monozukuri strategy (purchasing, manufacturing, and supply chain management), product planning, business management, and finance control.