Mazda Motor plans to discontinue its passenger vehicle production partnership with Ford in Thailand, a Japanese newspaper said.
The automakers have a 50/50 partnership making compact passenger vehicles at the Auto Alliance plant in Rayong Province, Thailand. Each automaker has its own production lines with annual capacity of 50,000 vehicles..
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Mazda intends to take over Ford’s lines and double its capacity to 100,000 vehicles by 2018, the Nikkei said. It also plans to produce engines at the plant. Including engine production, the company aims to spend JPY30bn (US$291m) at the factory by 2018.
Ford plans subsequently to shift passenger vehicle production at the plant to other factories.
Mazda and Ford also own pickup truck production lines at the plant. The companies plan to continue production on these lines which have an annual capacity of 70,000 units each.
