Mazda Plant Reaches Milestone 9 Million Units

The 9 millionth car has rolled out of the gates of Mazda Motor Corporation’s Hofu plant in the Yamaguchi prefecture of Japan. This incredible number of cars were produced in 28 years and two months. What is even more amazing is that the last 1 million cars were manufactured in just 29 months, thanks to the height demand for the Mazda3 medium-sized hatchback.

The Hofu plant has two production facilities, H1 and H2, that together can make 481,000 units per year. In the first nine months of the year the plant has produced a total of 330,000 units, 30 percent more then in the same period of last year.

“I would like to thank all our valued customers, business partners and everyone in the Hofu community. Without your support, we would not be here today celebrating nine million units of production. Advancing from eight to nine million units has been particularly challenging due to the harsh external business environment, but thanks to all our employees and business affiliates working together under Monotsukuri Innovation, the Hofu Plant continues to be a success. Going forward, we will accelerate the momentum we have built up as we strive for the next target of ten million vehicles,” said Nariaki Uchida, the Hofu Plant’s general manager and Mazda executive officer, at the ceremony held today.

The Hofu factory caters to US and Pacific consumers, making the Mazda3 and Mazda6. Partly to "blame" for the success of both models is the fact that both the 3 and the 6 offer standard safety equipment such as six SRS airbags, ABS and DSC, thus leading to a 5 star NCAP rating for these particular models.