Mazda Motor Corporation has positioned its operations in Thailand as an important global hub after raising production capacity for SkyActiv engines earlier this year.
The Japanese carmaker yesterday held the opening ceremony for a new production line of SkyActiv engines, boosting capacity from 30,000 to 100,000 units annually.
The plant, run by Mazda Powertrain Manufacturing Thailand (MPMT), occupies an 800-rai plot in Chon Buri, where Mazda spent ¥26 billion in February 2013 to build the facility to make 400,000 SkyActiv transmissions.
In August 2016, Mazda spent a further ¥22.1 billion to set up the machining factory and raise production capacity for engines.
Kiyotaka Shobuda, senior managing executive officer of Mazda Motor Corporation, said the Thailand site has gained in prominence alongside Mazda's facilities in Hiroshima and Hofu. The Thai and Japanese operations make Mazda's most important products: vehicles, powertrains and transmissions.
In Japan, Mazda makes 966,000 vehicles, 1.14 million transmissions and 1 million engines a year.
"For Thailand, we have developed this site to play a role as the Asean hub, with all products shipped to Mazda's car assembly plants in Malaysia, Vietnam and some in China," Mr Shobuda said. "MPMT is now making the SkyActiv technology for both [petrol] and diesel, while 80% of transmission output and 20-30% of engine output goes to exports and the remaining production directly serves AutoAlliance Co in Rayong, a joint venture car assembly plant of Mazda and Ford."
Mr Kogai at the opening ceremony for the new engine production line.
Masamichi Kogai, president and chief executive of Mazda Motor Corporation, said the group's long-term milestones for the Thai site in the coming decades include developing suppliers locally.
"We have to work hard to strengthen our operations as well as suppliers on a higher quality of Mazda cars, and we will focus on improvement of Mazda's SkyActiv cars -- the sixth generation now to deliver the high-quality products for customers -- to gain more trustfulness," Mr Kogai said. "One of Mazda's key philosophies is to develop the vehicles with a responsibility to the global environment, so creating new-generation vehicles is Mazda's goal to reduce CO2 emissions."
In Thailand, Mazda recently announced that the company had applied for the Board of Investment scheme to produce hybrid cars, setting aside a budget of 11.4 billion baht.
Mr Kogai said each country has many different policies for popularising electric vehicles (EVs), adding that the policies vary depending on each nation's energy circumstances.
For Thailand, most resources for power utilities come from fossil fuels and coal, which add a great deal of CO2 to the air.
If EVs become more popular, demand for power will increase and the country will need to construct new power plants.
"For the EVs, we have to consider that the country can reduce emissions overall, or well-to-wheel analysis," Mr Kogai said. "Probably the EVs may not answer the question, unlike hybrid or plug-in hybrid cars, but they will release less CO2 in total."