HIROSHIMA, Japan-Mazda Motor Corporation has announced that its sales and production company in Malaysia, Mazda Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., has strengthened its production system and unveiled a locally made all-new CX-5, a model it began producing on August 29 this year. Mazda Malaysia held a ceremony to mark the occasion, and representatives of Mazda and local business partners also took part.

Before starting production of the CX-5, Mazda Malaysia invested about 2.3 billion yen to build an exclusive paint shop for Mazda's designer body colors and to automate part of the body-welding process. These measures align new technologies at the plant with those at Ujina and Hofu, Mazda's "parent factories" in western Japan, and will further enhance production quality. Until now, the CX-5 made in Malaysia has been sold in Malaysia and Thailand. Moving forward, the company plans to ship the model to the Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia and Myanmar as well.

"We see Malaysia as an important production base in the ASEAN region and, with the aim of establishing a sturdy production system, we've worked closely with our business partners to develop manufacturing of Mazda cars here," said Masatoshi Maruyama, Mazda's Managing Executive Officer in charge of Global Production and Business Logistics. "In addition to enabling the production of cars in Soul Red Crystal and Machine Gray, colors that represent the Mazda brand, these new measures strengthen a consistent production framework based on Mazda's manufacturing concepts and technologies. We will continue efforts to raise quality levels even higher, and I'm confident that cars manufactured here will satisfy customers in every market."

Hiroshi Inoue, Mazda's Managing Executive Officer in charge of ASEAN business, said, "Customers in ASEAN markets are constantly raising the bar for Mazda's products, technologies and quality standards. We see it as our mission to offer value that exceeds their expectations. And the Malaysia-made all-new CX-5, which is imbued with Mazda's passion for car-making, is just the model to do that. Moving forward, we will continue working closely with our business partners to contribute to the development of the automotive industry in Malaysia, and aim to enrich people's lives with cars that provide driving pleasure."