Nissan is Nismo, short for "Nissan Motorsport International Limited." Nismo is being re-positioned as Nissan's performance brand. For many years, Nissan used a red wordmark for the company, and car "badges" for the "Nissan" and "Infiniti" brands. At Nissan's 2013 earnings press conference in Yokohama, Nissan unveiled "a new steel-blue logo that spells out—literally—the distinction between Nissan the company and Nissan the brand." Using a blue-gray color scheme, the new corporate logo did read NISSAN MOTOR COMPANY. Underneath were the "badge" logos for the Nissan, Infiniti and Datsun brands. Later in 2013, the Nissan "Company" logo changed to the Nissan "Corporation"
Automotive industry crisis of 2008–10 promote the Hyundai brand in the United States. Nonetheless, South Korean automakers were not completely immune to this automotive crisis and in December 2008 Hyundai Motor Company had begun reducing production at plants in the U.S., China, Slovakia, India and Turkey because of sluggish demand. The company missed an earlier projection of 4.8 million units for 2008 and announced a freeze of wages for administrative workers and shortened factory operations as demand weakens amid a global financial crisis. South Korea's fourth largest automaker, SsangYong Motor, owned by the Chinese automobile manufacturer SAIC (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation), is the worst affected