Mazda’s Total Domestic Production Exceeds 50 M. Units

May 29, 2018

Tokyo- Mazda Motor Corp. said Monday that its cumulative domestic vehicle production has topped 50 million units.

The landmark figure was achieved 86 years and seven months after the automaker started production of three-wheeled trucks in Hiroshima Prefecture, western Japan, in October 1931.

"We aim to build a stronger brand through various measures," Masamichi Kogai, president of the company, said at a ceremony held in its plant in Hofu, Yamaguchi Prefecture, western Japan.

Mazda made a full-scale entry into the passenger car market in 1960 with the Mazda R360 coupe minivehicle.

In Japan, the company has a manufacturing plant at its headquarters in Hiroshima Prefecture and another in Hofu in neighboring Yamaguchi Prefecture.

Its domestic production hit 10 million units in 1979, 20 million units in 1987, 30 million units in 1995, and 40 million units in July 2007.

Mazda's annual domestic production occasionally exceeded one million units, but after the global financial crisis in 2008, the figure stagnated, standing at some 986,800 units in fiscal 2017.

The automaker has overseas manufacturing bases in China, Thailand and Mexico, with a global production target of 1.66 million units in fiscal 2018 and two million units in fiscal 2023.

Amid the growing popularity of sport-utility vehicles globally, Mazda's CX series, including the CX-5, in particular has pushed up the overall production figure, a company official said. Jiji Press