Mazda Motor Corporation has announced plans to increase SKYACTIV transmission* production capacity at the Nakanoseki district of Hofu Plant in Yamaguchi, Japan.  Production capacity, currently at 750,000 units annually, will be increased to 1,140,000 units in July 2014 in response to growing sales of SKYACTIV models around the globe.

“Operations began at the Nakanoseki district of Hofu plant in December 1981, and it is now Mazda’s chief transmission production facility, says Mazda New Zealand managing director Andrew Clearwater.  

Mazda is strengthening its production system in order to achieve its goal of achieving global sales of 1.7 million vehicles annually by the fiscal year ending March 2016.  Eighty percent of those vehicles are expected to feature SKYACTIV technology.  In addition to the Nakanoseki district, Mazda will construct a new transmission plant in Thailand with an annual production capacity of around 400,000 units.  Operations at the new plant are expected to begin in the first half of the fiscal year ending March 2016.

The SKYACTIV transmission was first installed in the Mazda CX-5 introduced to the New Zealand market in 2012. Globally it is now available in five different models.  It will also be available in the all-new Mazda3 due to be launched in New Zealand early 2014.

* Includes both SKYACTIV-DRIVE automatic transmission and SKYACTIV-MT manual transmission.