Nissan cars didn't always go by that name. In the early years of Nissan most people knew them as Datsun. Initially the strategy of the company seemed to be focused on making affordable cars that got great gas mileage. These strategy worked fantastically in the 70's especially when American gas prices rose due to the Arab gas embargo. Many people saw Datsun as having BMW quality but with a smaller price tag. All of this combined to make Datsun one of the top Japanese auto makers in the US. Everyone all over the world knew the name Datsun except in their home country Japan, there they were known as Nissan.
In an attempt to strengthen Nissan's name the company decided to rename all Datsuns to Nissans. This not only caused confusion in the market place (no one knew who Nissan was) but also it mis-aligned their strategy. Nissan was great at making low cost gas efficient vehicles and they seemed to be aligned to do so. By re-branding all of their cars to be a part of the Nissan name, which was a higher class vehicle, it mis-aligned their strategy of now being perceived as a high class company. Now Nissan is only the number three Japanese brand in the US.
Though it seems that they have re-aligned the company to fit the re-branding of Nissan as a high class car maker (especially with the addition of the Infinity line) it seems that Nissan wants to start making low cost gas efficient cars again. Since they have worked so hard to elevate the brand's image they are going to release this new line of cars under the name Datsun.
I think this will work in keeping their 7-S model aligned since they are not trying to change their strategy completely, but rather revive the old image as something separate from Nissan's brand image.
