The new CX-5 is proving to be a bright spot for Mazda, which has announced plans to increase production capacity of the compact crossover by 20 percent, from 200,000 to 240,000 units per year. This will be achieved by expanding production from Mazda’s Ujina Plant No.2 in Japan to also include Ujina Plant No.1.
The news follows a previous announcement from the automaker that it would expand production of the CX-5 from 160,000 units to 200,000 units.
The Japanese brand said that since sales began in February this year, demand has far surpassed initial estimations and that it has upgraded its annual global sales target from 160,000 to 190,000 units for the fiscal year that ends on March 31, 2013.
According to the company, as of July 1, it has received 24,000 orders in Japan, more than doubling the annual domestic sales target in less than five months from the beginning of sales, while in Russia, there are more than 10,000 orders compared to an annual sales target of 12,000 units. In the States, Mazda has sold a little over 16,000 CX-5s from the end of February through June.
In related news, Mazda announced it will be doubling production capacity of its SKYACTIV-D diesel and SKYACTIV-G gasoline engines, which are offered on several models including the CX-5 and Mazda3 (only the petrol unit), from 400,000 units to 800,000 units per year in October 2012.
Both types of engines will be offered on the brand-new Mazda6 coming next year.
Mazda is targeting annual sales of 1,700,000 vehicles globally in the fiscal year ending March 2016, with 80 percent of these cars to employ SKYACTIV TECHNOLOGY.
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