Ford and Mazda to Invest $500M in New Thai Plant

9 October 2007

Ford Motor Company and Mazda Motor Corporation today plan to invest more than US$500 million in a new, highly-flexible small passenger car plant at AutoAlliance Thailand (AAT), a joint venture between the two companies.

Ford and Mazda have already jointly invested more than US$1 billion in the AAT facility. This new investment underscores the strategic role that AAT will continue to play as a regional production hub for both Ford and Mazda. AAT celebrated the production milestone of 1 million units earlier this year, reaching it nearly two years ahead of schedule.

The total investment value will be split evenly between Ford and Mazda, and increase AAT’s potential production capacity to 275,000 units from its current annual 175,000, including both complete built up (CBU) units and complete knock down (CKD) units. In addition to domestic sale, Ford and Mazda plan to export their respective small cars manufactured at AAT to markets in the ASEAN region, as well as Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

AAT will begin manufacturing Ford and Mazda’s respective small cars (B-class) in 2009. AAT will also be able to accommodate a more diversified range of products in the future, with simultaneous production of different passenger cars that extend up through the mid-size segment.