Moody’s Investors Service raised the rating of Nissan to the highest in 12 years. Based from Moody’s expectations, Japan’s third-largest automaker will boost its sales for new models.

“Nissan’s revenue and cash flow will be more stable and be maintained at a level higher than the industry average,” the rating company said.

Nissan’s rating increased by one notch to A3. It is the seventh highest investment grade from Baal. Moody’s last raised Nissan in March 2004.

To improve supports, Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn’s efforts in reviving sales after annual profit declined last year for the first time since 2000. Nissan plans to introduce 11 new or revamp models globally this year. The company accompanied additional enhancements of Nissan parts and special features of their models. This will include the Rogue sport-utility vehicle in the United States and will cut costs by buying more components from China and India.

“Nissan is probably banking on its release of the new Rogue later this year. I wouldn’t say that Nissan has improved its model mix yet. I would pay close attention to how the Rogue sells when it’s introduced in the U.S.,” said Takashi Aoki, who helps manage about 130 billion yen at Mizuho Asset Management Co.

Through great engineering package of Nissan parts which give powerful output, new models will help push net income 4.2 percent higher to 480 billion yen ($4.2 billion) in the 12 months ending March.

The rating change is based on Nissan’s improved earnings outlook as the carmaker introduces new models, state of the art engineering, and power packed Nissan parts that continues to cut costs. According to Ghosn, the automaker will raise global component purchases from low-cost countries to as much as 24 percent of the total from about 14 percent now.

Nissan will be showing their new model later this month. It is the Nissan Rogue, a small, car-based CUV designed for those that need a utility vehicle, slightly smaller than a Murano and a little manlier than a CR-V.

With the exclusively enhanced Nissan parts, the Rogue was designed to be a bit more masculine or at least more gender neutral. The appearance is clean and would make the car owner proud when seen with the vehicle. Inside is a lot of plastic and the dash’s design does show a bit of a Sentra/Versa influence. But the overall design is very clean and all the controls and switchgear both feel sturdy and are intuitive to use. The Rogue’s cavernous glovebox is big enough to hold a twelve pack of beer. The seats are nice and supportive, and there is a decent amount of headroom in both the front and back. Nissan, being smart, did not try to stuff a third row in to the Rogue, so the cargo room at the back seats is pretty good for the car.

The Rogue is somewhat the Nissan Sentra. This so-called “cute” Nissan model is built atop Nissan’s C-platform. The platform is the same as the one that underpins cars like the Sentra, Renault Megane and Japan-spec Nissan Dualis. Not only with improved Nissan parts and platform the Rogue shares with the Sentra SE-R but also the impressive performance that comes with the new model. The Rogue gets the base SE-R’s 170 horsepower inline four and the paddle-shifted with “six-speed” Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT). The engineering package provides smooth ride and confident cornering abilities. More power can be used since 170 horses and 175 lb.-ft. of torque can do more than adequate job of propelling the Nissan forward.

Nissan’s Rogue starts at under $20K. Customers who are comfortable with the size of their manhood may prefer the new model. Ladies may also desire to have the “cute” Nissan Rogue. From the freshly installed brawny Nissan parts to a more powerful action, Nissan Rogue surely gets the interest of people and will make its name in the market.

Nissan is not just distributing the full range of Nissan cars, Nissan parts, commercial vehicles and forklifts in many areas. The company is also active in indulging with many projects which have successfully built strong links with the community and other events.

For the start of the 2007 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships, Nissan is gearing up and sponsoring the cool event. The championships will take place at Fort William, Scotland, from September 3rd to 9th with more than 700 top riders participating. It is the first time the championships have been held in the UK and the first time the event has been sponsored by Nissan which is under a new project, “Nissan Sports Adventure”.

Nissan will have an exciting position at the tournament. Visitors can meet women’s downhill champion Tracey Moseley who will be signing autographs for three consecutive days.

Nissan has also built a fantastic trials area incorporating a Navara. This will be included in the trials’ finals where the skills of riders will be put to the test. Visitors to the Nissan stand can also enter a competition to win a top of the range mountain bike or a trip to California, and can view the Nissan range of vehicles prepared with all exclusive Nissan parts including the award-winning 4×4 range.

The initiative also takes the promotion of adventure sports, including mountain biking, and an active outdoor lifestyle to the next stage. Nissan will be working with the UCI to develop mountain biking across all levels, particularly via the high profile World Championships which attract a global television audience.

“Mountain biking is a modern and dynamic discipline with an attractive image and enormous potential. The interest shown by a company like Nissan confirms this. Thanks to the joint efforts of Nissan and the ICU, everyone associated with mountain biking will see fantastic progress in the years to come,” said Pat McQuaid, ICU President.

Nissan Sports Adventure is also the headline sponsor of the 2007 UCI World Cup, in a partnership which has been agreed until at least 2009.

The company does not solely focus on manufacturing performance vehicles, exclusive Nissan parts and winning service for people, it supports significant happenings as well.

Japanese car maker and Ashok Leyland have announced that them teamed up for the production of pickup trucks and other light commercial vehicles in India and are still looking for partners in sale and distribution. Nissan President and Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said in a statement, “Our LCV business and overall expansion into India represents two of the biggest growth opportunities for Nissan in the medium and long term. This latest investment will broaden our coverage of this market in addition to providing new LCV products for emerging markets.”

Shares of Ashok Leyland rose 4% to 37.65 rupees (91 cents) on the Bombay Stock Exchange Wednesday.

The two companies will make three joint ventures for vehicles, the manufacturing of powertrain and development of technology. They will manufacture approximately 100,000 vehicles yearly in the medium term and including for export. The domestic light commercial vehicle market made a compound annual growth rate of around 12.5 percent during the past five years. The present production in the LCV segment across the board is estimated at 160,000 units.

Tata Motors leads the commercial vehicle arena overall. Ashok Leyland has a 30% market share of the medium and heavy vehicle segments. But it has only 2% of the light commercial vehicle market because of a lack of competitive products, analysts say.

Merrill Lynch analyst S. Arun said in a research note, “This is the most significant of the recent developments for Ashok Leyland.” He added that it would “eventually plug the gap of the company’s absence in the light vehicles segment.” However, for the meantime,. He expects the business prospects to remain unexciting and has a sell rating.

The Managing Director for Ahok Leyland, R Seshasayee said that the company wanted to widen its portfolio and the partnership with Nissan, renowned for their product engineering and a wide range of LCV products, will allow Ashok Leyland to expand into the fast-growing LCV segments in India.”

Nissan already has a joint business enterprise with tractor maker Mahindra and Mahindra and Renault in the auto market in India, where it manufactures no-frills Logan sedan. The three companies are setting up a production plant in Southern India, in the city of Medras. This plant has the capacity to manufacture around 400,000 units of vehicles.

Ghosn has mentioned earlier this year that he planned to produce a small car that priced around $3,000 for the growing middle-class consumer base here.