27 September, 2007
Ford’s China
venture has taken off. The automaker
has revealed that Changan Ford Mazda
Automobile Co, its joint venture in
China, has begun
operations at a new assembly plant to
make small cars under the Ford and
Mazda brands. The new facility would
help Ford to up its passenger
car-manufacturing capacity in China to
more than 410,000 units a year.
Ford has said that the Nanjing plant
uses the latest auto-manufacturing
technologies and automation equipment.
A maximum of eight models with
different chassis can be
simultaneously produced on the plant's
production lines.
Though the company has not revealed
the names of the models that would
come out of the plant, news sources
said that the Nanjing-based facility,
which has been set up on an investment
of $510 million, boasts of an initial
production capacity of 160,000
vehicles a year.
Changan Ford Mazda Automobile is 35
per cent-owned by Ford, 50 per
cent-owned by China's Changan
Automotive Group, and 15 per
cent-owned by Mazda Motor Corp.
Mazda is an affiliate of Ford. The
joint venture already runs a
vehicle-assembly plant in Chongqing in
China's southwest, with an annual
capacity of 250,000 vehicles. The
Chongqing plant produces the Ford
Focus, Ford Mondeo, Ford S-MAX, Volvo
S40, and Mazda3.
The car major plans to lift the wraps
off a Ford-branded small car in 2008.
Besides, the Mazda2 compact car is
also expected to be rolled out of the
Nanjing factory later in 2007.
