Ford and Mazda invest $350 million in Rayong plant for next generation pick-up trucks

Auto Alliance Thailand, a joint venture between Mazda Motor Corp and Ford Motor Co, have announced that they will be investing US$350 million in its pickup truck plant to prepare for the production of next generation pick-up trucks. This is likely the next generation Ranger/Fighter.

Production of the redesigned pick-up trucks is expected to start sometime mid-2011, according to Ford. The factory will be retooled and upgraded for the production of the pick up trucks. The new investment would mean that since 1995, both companies have invested about US$1.85 billion in the AutoAlliance Thailand facility.

Models produced by the AutoAlliance factory are exported to more than 130 markets around the world. This includes the Mazda2 and Ford Fiesta models, produced at the Rayong plant, exported to other markets including Malaysia (we’ll get it sometime soon). The JV also celebrated 1 million units produced in July 1997.

One question that we have in mind is whether the new Ranger/Fighter will follow the One Ford plan, where Ford will develop global models and then tailor them to different markets via equipment instead of market-specific models. Our current generation Ranger is quite different from the Ranger in the US, which is larger. The next generation Ford Focus is one example of a car that has been ‘unified’ under the One Ford plan.

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Jacob Alexander

Jacob Mathew Alexander has been a motoring nut for as far as he can remember and has recently turned his passion into writing. After spending some time in the same industry in the UK, Jacob's work is from a slightly different perspective.

 

Comments

  • torque on Aug 29, 2010 at 12:04 am

    Good for the Thais and go go go for G (Gollum)…keep ur “precious” NAP and just see all the money from foreign co. pump to others country. Sad, we used to be the first choice in this asia region.

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  • The Loner on Aug 29, 2010 at 12:13 am

    Good. Hopefully the new Ford Ranger or Mazda pickup truck can have better engine performance besides good fuel consumption.

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  • GreenEco on Aug 29, 2010 at 12:26 am

    Spied shot of next generation pick-up truck AutoAlliance Thailand going to build at Rayong Plant.

    http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2009/05/spied-ford-ranger-t6-global-small-pickup.html
    http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2010/01/spied-again-nextgen-ford-global-ranger.html

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  • let the bashing begins

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  • malaysia memang boleh on Aug 29, 2010 at 5:07 am

    Aiya this much only,I thought it will be more than this,if they have brain and logic thinking,they know the reason,but if they simply bash,typical Malalysian will always be typical Malaysian.You think Malaysian wanna go work at factory,at the end the company have to import in foreign workers,no doubt they still investing money in our country but who get the benefits,the foreign workers.

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    • malaysia memang boleh on Aug 29, 2010 at 5:09 am

      Malaysian*

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    • MoFaz on Aug 29, 2010 at 3:16 pm

      correct!
      more job opportunities for indonesian, bangladeshi, and nepalese. we now have more than 2 million foreign workers, 1 in every 10 of us. they simply rioting whenever they want, they stepped and burned our flag and yet their family members are working here.. stupid indonesians!

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  • torque on Aug 29, 2010 at 12:19 pm

    Good for u bro! Just think if NONE foreign co. doing investment here in Malaysia, where do u think our G gonna get their money? That’s rite…TAX!! From where? Where else, us la the people! U wanna pay high tax izzit? My stand r simple, the G need to carefully look at their NAP policy…don’t be idiot! The journalist Chips Yap once write a column on this matter in Autocar Asean about we losing our ground advantage in this asia region as a hub. Plus u comment why people in Malaysia don’t wanna work in factory? My aunt used to work there once, trust me…they pay PEANUTS!! U work there bro?

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    • Tiadaid on Aug 30, 2010 at 9:38 am

      Why do you think factory worker get paid peanuts? Because Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia & China’s workers are paid even cheaper than peanuts. Why should companies open up a factory in Malaysia when they can get more profits paying less. If you complain about factories paying peanuts than it repudiates your own call for people to open more factories here. We should focus on getting more R&D to be done, more high income businesses so that they can offer opportunities for locals to work with higher salaries. That’s what high income economy’s all about. Being a mere assembler only works in the short term.

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      • torque on Sep 02, 2010 at 11:49 am

        Yes bro, I agreed that others country like u mention above pays peanuts mar…but there’s a English term when u pay peanuts u get peanuts la! But here in Malaysia amat banyak company2 besar yang expect u to give ur life or super best tapi bayar cam siput!! How many already quality graduate from Malaysia, born in Malaysia end up working in foreign land. Sayang sekali!!

        That’s why I stress out that the G still need to work out a plan to attract the foreign investor, since we still has the advantages to be the center hub for south east asia n asia region. And YES!!! I totally agreed with you 100% on “Being a mere assembler only works for a short term”…look at most our auto plant, all r under fully utilised.

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  • squawk on Aug 29, 2010 at 2:26 pm

    Vietnam is becoming more business friendly. That’s our other competitor. But at least we’re still better off than Myanmar right? :)

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