Nissan Motor Co. announced a new role for its in-house tuner Nismo as they are moving to a new headquarters in Yokohama. From here on out Nismo is Nissan’s exclusive global performance road car and motorsport brand, kinda like AMG for Mercedes and M department for BMW.

That is what Nismo has been doing for years, but now it can be recognized as a brand and it can expand its business. The first order of business is developing a new line-up of sporty Nissan road cars, introducing a bit of innovation and excitement to the brand’s ordinary cars, and then initiating a major motorsport expansion program which includes a Le Mans 24 Hours comeback in 2014.

The new Nismo HQ is a redeveloped production site which gives the company the resources for expanding beyond motorsport engineering to encompass performance road car development alongside Nissan. The workshop, engine shop, rooms for fabrication, grinding and carbon composite processes are consolidated into the same floor space along with the parts warehouse.  They run a team of 180 experts.

In a special ceremony today, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn declared the new headquarters open and explained how Nismo will play an even more prominent role for the company’s performance car and motorsport activities.

“Nismo will democratise performance and bring new excitement to the Nissan portfolio with a broader range of affordable and innovative performance models for more markets and more people,” said Mr. Ghosn. “Whether it’s a small car or a sports car, if it’s wearing the Nismo badge it offers something special – quality, functionality, and efficiency, with Nismo’s distinctive styling, sporty handling and dynamic performance capabilities.”