Here’s A Closer Look At How Nissan Tunes Its New Car Smell

Love the smell of your new Nissan vehicle? Meet the person responsible for Nissan’s global odor standards.

This is Ryunosuke Ino. He is a ‘smellmaster’ at Nissan, or specifically a technical expert in vehicle interior air quality or yes, a smell engineer. While he realizes that his job is something that not many people know, he is actually an integral part of your fun new car experience.

In the video embedded above, Nissan gives us a closer look at how Nissan tunes the scent of its new car. The video is in Japanese, but you can activate the “CC” button so you can read the subtitles and understand what it’s like to be an olfactory expert.

Being a stink machine is not an easy task. Ryunosuke’s preparations started the day before because he had to avoid eating foods with a strong smell like garlic.

After sitting down and being in the same position as the customer, Ryunosuke inspected every part of the car. He focused on the sun visor, glovebox, and every open and closed part of the car because it picks up different odors. It’s also important to check each component as materials sometimes differ on the front and back.

According to Ryunosuke, Nissan has set high standards when it comes to the smell of its new cars. If these standards are not met, he has to find the origin of the smell and check the info from the supplier and analyze the ingredients. In some cases, the material needs to be changed.

Ryunosuke may set a global odor standard for Nissan but it can still vary by region, depending on olfactory experts and customer feedback. We’d met Peter Karl Eastland before, Nissan Europe’s smell engineer.

Before you say that anyone can do Ryunosuke and Eastland’s job, know that Nissan has a certification test for odor recognition. It’s a cool show, though, we have to say.