It sounds bizarre we know, but it’s the way the modern automotive world works, with its streamlined production, fully integrated value chains and optimised revenue streams. Mazda Motor Corporation and Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) have just announced a production plan that will see Mazda produce Toyota vehicles at its Salamanca city plant in Mexico from 2015 onwards.
The Mazda plant may still only be under construction in Mexico, but it will build the Mazda2-based city-car Toyota wants to sell in North America, at a rate of 50 000 units a year once production is up to full capacity. Mazda say the new plant will produce 140 000 units annually and employ 3 000 workers in total.
The agreement means an investment into production equipment and model development costs by Toyota, as well as costs related to the plant’s production-capacity increase. Moreover, what do we think of Toyota’s plans to sell a rebadged version of the Mazda2 in the United States?
We certainly hope the model will be based on the next-generation Mazda2 and have unique styling. What about the new Toyota Yaris? Perhaps the Mazda2-based model could slot below the Yaris, but nevertheless this still does sound like quite a bizarre concoction to us.
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