Ford and Mazda invest $27 million in their AutoAlliance Thailand joint-venture to boost capacity of the plant’s pickup-truck line by 20,000 units.
The additional units will increase annual truck capacity to 195,000 units, bringing overall capacity to 295,000 units a year, including cars.
AAT builds the all-new Ford Ranger and Mazda BT-50 pickups for the domestic and export markets, with the exception of North America.
The plant also produces the Ford Everest SUV and the Ford Fiesta and Mazda2 and Mazda3 small passenger cars for sale in Thailand and export to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and other markets.
“The new investment reinforces Ford’s long-term commitment to Thailand as a global production and export hub and will allow us to meet the extraordinary demand for the all-new Ford Ranger,” Peter Fleet, president of Ford ASEAN, says in a statement.
The expenditure increases Ford and Mazda’s total joint investment in the AAT facility to nearly $2 billion since the operation began in 1995.
The auto makers last year spent $350 million to support facility upgrades and supplier tooling for production of the next-generation Ranger and Mazda pickups.
