Home » Car brands » Cony
🇯🇵 Japan, 1959-1970
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History
Cony コニー
The history of this brand can be traced back to Aichi Tokei Manufacturing Co., Ltd., founded in 1898. The name was changed to Aichi Tokei Denki K.K. in 1912 and started producing airplanes in the 1920's. In 1943, the firm changed its name to Aichi Kōkūki K.K. - litterally Aichi Aircraft Company. After WWII, in 1947, the company was re-established as Shin Aichi Entrepreneurial Co., Ltd and acquired the rights to the production of the Giant brand three-wheeler trucks previously produced by Giant Nakano Motors and Teikoku Seiki Sangyo in Nagoya. In 1952 the company became Aichi Kikai Kōgyō (Aichi Machine Industry) and continued manufacturing the Giant products until 1960. The interest fading towards three-wheelers and shifting to 4-wheel vehicles, Aichi Machine Industry created the Cony brand in 1959, carrying the Giant name into that brand onto new 4-wheel models.
In December 1958, the company solicited pet names for the light three-wheeled truck, which was announced at the time through mass media outlets primarily in major metropolitan areas across Japan. While the aim was to promote the vehicle, the response was far greater than anticipated, with 17,111 entries received by the deadline of January 20th, 1959.
From these, they narrowed the choices down to 33, and after careful consideration, selected "Cony" (an archaic word for rabbit). This name would be used for all their light vehicles, replacing "Giant."
The winner received prizes such as a television and an electric refrigerator, and many other entrants also received prizes through a lottery.
The Cony Guppy model was an interesting small car that capted the attention of Nissan, which obtained a contract to produce 100 or more small cars to supply the "Kodomo no kuni" park in Yokohama.
Nissan worked conjointly with Aichi Machine Industry (and later acquiring them) to produce the Datsun Baby in 1964. A car that would be used exclusively at the park when it would open in Yokohama in 1965 for promoting car driving and car safety to kids in age of learning about cars, letting them drive in presence of an adult. A larger center brake pedal was fitted as well as an accelerator pedal on each side of the cockpit's floor to allow the riding adult to exert control. Of the 100 or so produced, only 2 were thought to have survived, one at Nissan heritage, restored, and one 100% original that was donated to a museum in Hokkaido in the 1960's. However, in 2023, some images surfaced online of a secret bunker location within the Kodomo no kuni park which contained 6 Datsun Baby in various state of decay. In early 2026, the cars were taken out along with 3 other vehicles that served in the 1970 Osaka International Expo. See Datsun Baby (JPN)(1964).
Aichi Machine Industry continued to be active after the incorporation into Nissan, see section below.
Main factory in Nagoya (automotive production and engine manufacturing)
Plant in Atsuta
Plant in Eitoku
Plant in Matsusaka (built 1975 to 1977, production start in April 1977, transmission manufacturing)
Plant in Minato (production start December 1983, automobile production)
Plant in Ãoe (production start November 1985, automobile production)
Plant in Tsu (start of production December 1991)
Giant ヂャイアント
Separately started in 1931 as Giant Nakano Motors, the Giant three-wheeler trucks were produced by this entity until 1937, when it was transferred to Teikoku Seizaku Co., Ltd., a rivet manufacturer headquartered in Osaka. The company changed its name in 1942 to Teikoku Seiki Sangyo but had to halt the production of Giant three-wheelers because of the WWII. As stated in the previous part, production of the Giant three-wheeler trucks was undertaken by Shin Aichi Entrepreneurial Co., Ltd after WWII.
Here is some insight on pre-war models :
Merger with Nissan
The Cony brand and Aichi Machine Industry was partly acquired and incorporated into Nissan from 1970 and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Nissan in 2012. It was responsible for producing some car models for Nissan such as :
Nissan Sunny Truck (February 1970)
Datsun Cherry Taxi (July 1971)
Datsun Cherry Van (March 1972)
Nissan Sunny Vanette (July 1978)
Nissan Vanette Largo (August 1982)
Nissan Vanette (December 1985)
Nissan Pao (May 1989)
Nissan Serena (May 1991)
Nissan Largo (April 1993)
Cars
To see the complete list of "Alpha 3" country codes used in these pages to specify the market in which the model was sold, please visit the following website :
https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/country_code_list.htm
(We added (EUR) for Europe, (NAM) for North America, (SAM) for South America and (GCC) for Gulf Cooperation Council)