Datsun is making a comeback.

The Japanese brand that laid the foundation for today's Nissan empire and brought tens of thousands of Australians the benefits of the compact 1600 and sporty 240Z is gearing up for a new role in the 21st century. 

Nissan appears to be preparing plans for a Datsun range to be sold in Russia, India, Indonesia and other emerging automotive markets. Reports out of Japan suggest that Datsun is the icon of choice for the new push, aiming to sell around 300,000 vehicles a year with cars - minivans in addition to cars - starting at just $5700.

But don't expect a revived Datsun in Australia as Nissan believes the price drive won't work. “We would not be able to understand where such a brand occupies in our portfolio,” Nissan spokesman Jeff Fisher told Carsguide.

“We have the ST Micra at the bottom, all the way to the Nissan GT-R at the top. We already have a base, in the best sense. Where would we put the Datsun there?

“For Australia, this is out of the question. Not at all.

“In any case, Australia is a mature market, not an emerging one.”

The Datsun plan comes as more and more manufacturers develop two-tier sales strategies for a range of countries as diverse as Turkey and Indonesia. This allows them to spread their development and production costs without compromising the power and price potential of existing core badges.

Renault, which is part of the Nissan-Renault alliance, uses the Dacia brand for its cheap cars, while Suzuki uses Maruti in India. Toyota Australia tried for a time to push Daihatsu to the bottom of the car business, but backed off when cars couldn't sell cheap enough in Australia.

Datsun has been the flagship brand of parent company Nissan for over 30 years, although the first cars actually appeared in the 1930s. After success with the 1600 and 240Z, but then failures with everything from the 200B to the 120Y, the badge was discontinued worldwide in the early 1980s.

In Australia, cars were sold first with Datsun badges, then Datsun-Nissan, then Nissan-Datsun and finally only Nissan at the time Pulsar was the local brand champion.

The origins of the Datsun name go back to Kenjiro Dan, Rokuro Aoyama, and Meitaro Takeuchi, who built the car around 1914 and combined their initials to call it Dat. In 1931, a completely new car was produced, on which the Datsun was named Data's son.