Mazda and Toyota have announced a new partnership for Mazda to produce a new Toyota-branded sub-compact in Mexico that will be sold in the US.
Mazda and Toyota have announced a new partnership for Mazda to produce a new Toyota-branded sub-compact in Mexico that will be sold in the US. The sub-compact Toyota-brand vehicle will be based on the Mazda2, is to start production around the summer of 2015 at a pace of 50,000 units per year.
Mazda’s plant in Mexico is scheduled to start production within the fiscal year ending March 2014, with Toyota investing an appropriate portion of production equipment costs and development costs related to the Toyota vehicle and also an appropriate portion of costs related to the plant’s production-capacity increase. The announcement isn’t too surprising, since Japan’s automakers are trying to move more production out of Japan due to the rising Yen. Honda has also recently announced plans to produce the next-generation Fit in Mexico.
There have been rumors that Mazda may not bring the next Mazda2 to the US due to its failure to meet sales expectations, so we’ll have to wait and see, but at least for now we know that it will show up as a Toyota here. Toyota hasn’t confirmed if the new Mazda2-based subcompact will be the next Yaris.
