Mazda
Mazda Motor Corporation produces annually almost 1.3 million vehicles, mostly, nearly 1 million, in the company’s Japanese plants for global sales. In 2011, Mazda was the world’s fifteenth largest automaker by production volume.
The first Mazda car, a three-wheeled truck, appeared in 1931. After World War II, production resumed in 1949 with the same three-wheeler. The first four-wheel truck was the Mazda Romper in 1958. The first passenger car, the Mazda R360 Coupe, came in 1960. Mazda’s first partnership with a foreign company in 1961 produced and developed rotary engines to set Mazda apart from other Japanese companies. Now Mazda is the only manufacturer of rotary engines since other companies gave up on the design during the ’70s.
The effort to set itself apart apparently helped as both piston- and rotary-powered Mazda models have made their way around the world. The rotary models were popular for their light weight compared to piston-engined competitors that required heavier six or eight cylinders to produce the same power. The R100 and the famed RX series led the first export efforts.
During 1968, Mazda started sales in Canada and in 1970 in the USA, where it was very successful, creating the Mazda Rotary Pickup solely for North American buyers. Mazda remains the only automaker to produce a rotary-powered pickup truck.
After the 1973 oil crisis, as buyers turned to vehicles with better fuel efficiency, Mazda made the rotary engine a choice for the sporting motorist in the lightweight RX-7 in 1978 and its RX-8 successor. In 1989, Mazda launched another successful lightweight sports car, a piston-powered roadster, the MX-5 or Miata, which continues in production after 900,000+ units 25 years later.
From 1979 to 2010, Mazda had a partnership with Ford, which by 1996 owned 33.3 percent and had effective control of Mazda. In this time, Ford used Mazda’s Familia platform in the Laser and Escort models and the Capella architecture in Ford’s Telstar sedan and Probe sports models. Ford gradually divested its stake from 2008 to 2010, severing production as well as development ties.
Ford built the Probe in a new Mazda assembly plant in Michigan along with the 626 sedan, the North American version of the Capella in the Japanese home market, and a companion Mazda MX-6 sports coupe. The Mazda 121 sold in Europe and South Africa was a variant of the Ford Fiesta built in European and South African plants. Mazda also sold the Ford Explorer sport utility vehicle as the two-door Mazda Navajo from 1991 through 1994.
During the financial crisis in the fall of 2008, Business Week reported that Ford might sell its stake in Mazda to streamline its asset base. The Ford- Mazda partnership had been very successful for both partners; nevertheless in November 2008 Ford sold more than half its stake and surrendered control of the company. Then Mazda bought back Ford’s remaining stake. Ford and Mazda remain cooperative, however, through joint ventures and exchanges of technological information.
In racing, Mazda has been successful with both rotary- as well as piston-engine models. Mazda competes around the world and as of 2013 remains the only Japanese automaker to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans overall.
