S30 Production Numbers

How many S30 Z cars were built depends on what you count: cars built in Japan, cars exported, cars sold in the U.S., calendar years or model years. The numbers below come from Nissan's own published figures, as collected by Carl Beck and Paul Hillman of zhome.com.

Note: Nissan reported by the year the cars were built. In Japan the year a car was built is its model year, so for Japanese-market cars these line up. U.S. model years don't follow the calendar, so a "1975" figure includes late U.S. 260Zs and early 280Zs, and each year includes some cars sold in the U.S. as the next model year.

Totals by Year

All S30 production in Japan, including Japanese-market Fairlady Zs, and the number exported, from Nissan's figures published in Fairlady Z Story by Yutaka Katayama and Yoshihiko Matsuo. The last column is the difference, which is mostly Japanese-market cars.

Year	Built	Running total	Exported	Running total	Kept in Japan	Note
1969	1,162	1,162	3	3	1,159
1970	21,837	22,999	17,005	17,008	4,832
1971	44,998	67,997	40,219	57,227	4,779
1972	65,956	133,953	60,025	117,252	5,931
1973	58,596	192,549	51,332	168,584	7,264
1974	62,961	255,510	54,026	222,610	8,935
1975	72,503	328,013	55,417	278,027	17,086
1976	72,565	400,578	64,597	342,624	7,968
1977	84,156	484,734	75,975	418,599	8,181
1978	91,220	575,954	74,784	493,383	16,436	Mixed year: the last S30s and the first S130s
1969–1978	575,954		493,383		82,571	Includes the first S130s built in 1978

1978 is a mixed year. S30 production stopped partway through 1978 while the line was retooled for the S130, which then started building 1979 model-year 280ZXs. Nissan's figures don't split the two, so the 1978 row includes both. For S30s alone, the 1969–1977 totals are 484,734 built and 418,599 exported, plus the S30s built in early 1978.

By Market

Export cars by destination and calendar year, from Nissan's 1978 book Datsun 280ZX. The U.S. took about 90% of them.

Year	Body	USA	Canada	Australia	Great Britain	Others	Total
1970		16,215	1,201	319	2	3	17,740
1971		33,684	3,440	894	264	89	38,371
1972		52,628	4,020	362	549	494	58,053
1973		45,588	2,537	783	1,114	430	50,452
1974	2-seater	40,172	1,370	442	129	1	42,114
1974	2+2	9,499	766	599	320	153	11,337
1975	2-seater	40,216	1,153	198	20	23	41,610
1975	2+2	11,594	329	742	139	493	13,297
1976	2-seater	45,766	876	385	—	7	47,034
1976	2+2	13,792	351	1,615	444	454	16,656
1977		54,594	1,005	98	312	63	56,072
1970–1977		363,748	17,048	6,437	3,293	2,210	392,736

Before 1974 the figures don't split 2-seaters and 2+2s, since the 2+2 didn't exist yet. The 1977 figure isn't split either.
For 1970–1973, "Others" were left-hand drive cars for Germany (112), Holland (232) and France (672). The Australian and British cars were right-hand drive HS30s (4,287 in all).
The 1976 Great Britain 2-seater figure is blank in the source, and the 1976 "Others" 2-seater figure is printed as "07".
This table adds up to about 26,000 fewer cars than the export totals above for 1970–1977 (392,736 vs. 418,596). The two tables come from different Nissan publications, and this one may leave out some destinations.

The 1969 Cars

Between May and December 1969, Nissan built 543 240Zs for export: 540 left-hand drive HLS30s and 3 right-hand drive HS30s. Nearly all were sold as 1970 models; there is no 1969 model year. Nissan's figure of only 3 exports in 1969 counts cars by when they were shipped, not when they were built.

VIN	What happened to it
HLS30 00001–00003	Production engineering prototypes; never left the factory
HLS30 00004–00005	Sent to the U.S. for road testing in October 1969, then returned to Japan
HLS30 00006–00008	Sent to the U.S. for press reviews and the auto show circuit; all went to racing teams, not the public
HLS30 00009–00012	Unaccounted for
HLS30 00013	The first 240Z sold to the public
HS30 00001–00002	Right-hand drive prototypes
HS30 00003	The first right-hand drive 240Z sold to the public; not yet located
HS30 00004	Built in 1970 and sold in Australia; found and restored there

240Z Totals

Nissan's export figures for 1969–1973 add up to 168,584. The market breakdown for 1970–1973 adds up to 164,616 240Zs. Zhome suggests the 3,968 difference may be early 1974 260Zs built in late 1973.
Of those 164,616, 148,115 went to the U.S. and 11,198 to Canada.
Series I: the highest Series I VIN recorded is HLS30 20438, and Series II VINs start at HLS30 21000. Zhome estimates that a little over 20,000 Series I cars were built. See Model Year Differences for how to tell the series apart.
Fairlady Z432: the Japanese-market twin-cam Z432 (PS30) is usually quoted at about 420 cars, and fewer than 50 of the racing Z432R are thought to have been built.

1978 and Special Editions

For 1978, zhome lists Nissan Motors USA's reported U.S. sales: 62,699 280Zs in the calendar year, including about 750 to 1,500 Black Pearl editions. The 1977 Z-Zap Z has its own page.

For the 280ZX years that followed, see S130 Production Numbers.

Sources Used

Zhome.com: Z Car Production and Sales Reports by Carl Beck and Paul Hillman, from Nissan's Datsun 280ZX (1978) and Fairlady Z Story by Yutaka Katayama and Yoshihiko Matsuo (scan on zhome.com)
Zhome.com: Production and Distribution of the Datsun 240Z by Carl Beck
Wikipedia: Nissan S30, for the Fairlady Z432