Mazda Adds Second Plant To Boost Production of Popular CX-5 Crossover

Mazda's successin the compact crossover area means more capacity is needed.

Compact crossovers are the new family vehicle in American and in many other parts of the world. General Motors recently pointed out in a press release that compact crossovers now make up the single largest vehicle segment in America with 2.9 million sold in 2016. Mazda's CX-5 has been a very popular vehicle for the automaker. The CX-5 is now the company's top seller in the U.S. and sales growth of about 5 to 10 percent can be expected going forward.

This means that Mazda must expand beyond its Hiroshima factory to keep up with global demand. Mazda announced this week that it will begin to produce the new 2017 CX-5 in its Hofu Plant in Yamaguchi prefecture to augment its Hiroshima plant's capacity.

Masatoshi Maruyama, Managing Executive Officer in charge of Global Production, commented on the added capacity, saying in part, "“As with the CX-3, starting production of the CX-5 at Hofu Plant as well is part of our plan to build a production framework that gives us more flexibility between plants and between models. We will do everything we can to get customers the crossover vehicles they want as quickly as possible.”

The new Mazda CX-5 starts at $24K and will be arriving at Mazda dealers this month. The CX-5 is a Top Safety Pick Plus-rated vehicle by IIHS.