Prince Motor Company

Prince Motors, Ltd.[1]
Native name
 プリンス自動車工業株式会社
Prince Jidōsha Kōgyō Kabushiki-gaisha
Public
Industry
Fate Merger with the Nissan Motor Company
Founded June 30, 1947 (1947-06-30) (Foundation of the Tokyo Electric Car Company)[3]
Defunct August 1, 1966 (1966-08-01)
Headquarters Suginami, Tokyo, Japan
Key people
Products
Subsidiaries Rhythm Friend Manufacturing (current THK Rhythm)

The Prince Motor Company was a Japanese automobile manufacturer from 1952 until its merger with Nissan in 1966. Prince began as the Tachikawa Aircraft Company, a manufacturer of various airplanes for the Japanese Army in World War II, e.g., the Ki-36, Ki-55 and Ki-74. Tachikawa Aircraft Company was dissolved after the war and the company took the name Fuji Precision Industries. It diversified into automobiles, producing an electric car, the Tama, in 1946, named for the region the company originated in, Tama. The company changed its name to Prince in 1952 to honor Prince Akihito's formal investiture as Crown Prince. In 1954 they changed their name back to Fuji Precision Industries, and in 1961 changed the name back again to Prince Motor Company.

Products

Prince had success building premium automobiles. Among its most famous car lines were the Skyline and Gloria, both of which were absorbed into the Nissan range after their 1966 merger; however, they also built the 15-passenger Homy which was eventually shared with the Nissan Caravan and the Nissan Laurel, a four-door sedan platform mate with the Skyline, on which Prince had begun development before the merger but was introduced after the merger in 1968. Prince had also begun development on a small car to compete with the Toyota Corolla and Nissan Sunny, but after the merger, the car was introduced as the Nissan Cherry using front wheel drive. The Prince organization remained in existence inside Nissan, though the marque disappeared. Since the merger, the Prince name survived as a dealership network in Japan until Nissan consolidated the Prince dealership network into "Nissan Blue Stage" in 1999.

The current Nissan Gloria and the Nissan Skyline are known in the USA as the Infiniti M and the Infiniti G (2003 - current).

Tama electric vehicle

History

The Prince Motor Company had two origins.[1][4]

Tachikawa Aircraft Company

Nakajima Aircraft Company

After the merger of the two origins until the merger with the Nissan

List of vehicles

See also

References

  1. 1 2 KATSURAGI, Yoji "The Beam of the Light of the Prince Motor Company" Grand Prix Book Publishing Co., Ltd., October 22, 2003 (Japanese) ISBN 4-87687-251-1
  2. 1 2 A short history of the Prince Motor Co., Ltd. (nissan-global.com)
  3. ↑ TOMA, Setsuo "Prince - A Japanese Car Maker With A Proud Legacy" Miki Press Inc., October 25, 2008 (Japanese) ISBN 978-4-89522-518-2
  4. ↑ 『「プリンス」荻窪の思い出 II』荻友会編 私家版 1997年11月16日 "Prince - Memories of Ogikubo" Private press by Tekiyukai (former Prince engineers)Association, Nov. 16, 1997 (Japanese)
  5. ↑ Björklund, Bengt, ed. (September 1962). "Japansk Rallydebut" [Japanese Rally Debut]. Illustrerad Motor Sport (in Swedish). No. 9. Lerum, Sweden. p. 7.
  6. ↑ Björklund, Bengt, ed. (October 1962). "Rally sensationer" [Rally Sensations]. Illustrerad Motor Sport (in Swedish). No. 10. Lerum, Sweden. p. 8.
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