Taiwan automaker Yulon Motor Co., in partnership with Nissan Motor of Japan and General Motors (GM) of the United States, has once again strengthened its increasingly important role in foreign technical partners` global division-of-labor schemes by inaugurating the Yulon Nissan Design Center (YNDC) at its Sanyi campus in central Taiwan.



Among the dignitaries participating in the inauguration ceremony were Yulon Group CEO Kenneth Yen, Nissan Motor senior vice president and chief designer Shiro Nakamura, and Taiwan Economics Minister Steve Chen.



The YNDC is one of Nissan`s now six global design centers. The others are Nissan`s Atsugi and Harajuku Design Centers in Japan; the Nissan Design America studios in Farmington Hills, Michigan and San Diego, California; and the Nissan Design Europe facility in London. These design centers are charged with working cooperatively and competitively to create next-generation vehicle designs.

The new center is also the Yulon Group`s fourth automobile design center, further consolidating its leading position in Taiwan`s automotive R&D. The other three Yulon facilities include the Yulon Asia Technical Center (YATC, responsible for development of mainly Nissan car models), CARTEC (China Motor Asia Research & Technology Center, focusing on Mitsubishis models), and Tjing Ling Design Center (Buicks).

Yulon poured NT$340 million (US$10.3 million at NT$33:US$1) into the YNDC, which is expected to add value to the international design group through its unique design vision, attributed largely to its setting in one of the fastest developing of the world`s new car markets. Like the other Nissan design facilities, YNDC is also responsible for designing next-generation models and is fully equipped with an advanced digital modeling system and other state-of-the-art design equipment and technology.

The new 1,770 ping (1 ping equals 36 square feet or 3.3 square meters) facility employs 40 designers from Taiwan and overseas. They will work in six functional groups: exterior design, interior design, digital design, clay modeling, color design, and design research and management.

According to Yulon, the center is equipped with the most advanced rapid digital-modeling system, measuring system, and mobile-type clay processing machines needed to develop 1:1 clay car models. The facility also has an advanced video conference system, enabling it to develop new car models simultaneously with designers at other Nissan design centers.

Yulon noted that the YNDC`s older counterpart, the YATC, worked on the redesign of several Nissan products especially for the Taiwan and mainland China markets, including the X-Trail SUV, Bluebird, and Cefiro sedans; the retro-inspired Verita and March mini car; and the Serena minivan. It has also begun developing both interiors and exteriors for car models produced by the Aeolus Automobile Co. in China. With the inauguration of YNDC, Yulon said, more and more Taiwanese designers will be able to transform their ideas into real car models.

Yulon has hosted the "Design the Future" auto design competition, the largest automobile design contest in Taiwan, for he past three years so as to deeply root automobile design in younger-generation designers and cultivate new designers. Nissan, which holds "Imagination Factory" design forums throughout Asia, chose Taiwan as the first stop in its 2007 program.

World-class Design Capability

"The establishment of the YNDC," Yulon CEO Yen commented, "marks an important milestone in Yulon`s automotive development capability. That capability has been upgraded from localization-oriented design into globalized car-model development, and this has boosted Yulon one step further into Nissan`s core business."

Yen pointed out that his mother, Vivian Wu Yen, recognized the importance of cultivating home-grown automobile development personnel over 20 years ago and set up the island`s first automotive technical center in northern Taiwan for the development of the Feeling 101, Taiwan`s first home-grown car model.

After Yen took the helm of the Yulon Group, he reorganized the technical center into YATC with the aim of differentiating new-car models for local production and worked out plans for the long-term best-selling Cefiro sedan. This totally reshaped Yulon`s quality and brand image in the minds of local consumers and greatly boosted the sales volume of locally produced Nissan car models.

The YATC also became responsible for redesigning Nissan`s Blue Bird sedan into the Aeolus II and III models for production in mainland China, where they won a hot market response and strengthened Nissan`s confidence in the YATC`s ability to develop car models especially suited to the tastes buyers in the Greater China region.

In 2003, when the Nissan Yulon Motor Co., a joint venture between Yulon and Nissan focusing on marketing, sales, R&D, and financial holding, was established as a spin-off from Yulon Motor (which then focused its attention more exclusively on car production), the YATC`s styling design division was split off and expanded into the YNDC.

Regional Market to Global Market

According to Nissan senior VP Nakamura, the styling of the version-change Nissan Teana sedan, which was introduced early this year and has enjoyed hot sales around the world, was developed by the YNDC, and the new center is expected to play a growing role in Nissan`s global deployment scheme.

"Nissan does not develop a car model for a single targeted market or nation only," Nakamura said. "So the YNDC`s design prints do not target only the markets on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait; they might also be developed into car models sold in Europe or other regions as well."

Nakamura did not comment on whether Nissan would set up a design center in mainland China. He noted, however, that China is a very important market for all global automakers, and said that Nissan has dispatched personnel to big cities in China to collect market information which can be used by Nissan`s six design centers around the world.
(by Quincy Liang)