These are the rooms and studios where Nissan car designers plan the next wave of cars to hit the streets of the world. Nissan design teams in London, San Diego, Harajuku and Atsugi work on automobile concepts taking into consideration local trends and preferences. The teams use digital sketches and data, computerised virtual reality simulations of yet-to-be-produced cars driving down Californian highways, and life-size clay models precision cut by machinery and honed smooth by Nissan fingertips. This is how the cars we’ll be driving soon take shape. New technologies and digital design processes have shortened design development and production times. As the Fairlady Z roams the streets and the zero-emission Leaf is readied for launch later this year, the designers in their Atsugi studios, and their colleagues abroad, are already poring over plans for next-generation Nissan cars.