Mazda Will Buy More Engines From Ford.(Brief Article)

Mazda Motor Corp., said it plans to raise its annual engine procurement by 150 percent from its parent, Ford Motor Co., the Nihon Keizai Shimbun daily reported. Mazda, owned 33.3 percent by Ford, will procure 200,000 Ford-made engines per year from the current 80,000 units, it said.

Mazda aims to achieve an improvement in its cost competitiveness and a recovery in profitability in Europe and the United States by using Ford-made engines, it added.

The company will use Ford-made engines starting in late 2002 for its new Mazda 6, the successor model to the Capella, to be made at their joint U.S. plant in Michigan. It will no longer export engines from Japan for the model, the newspaper said. Mazda will also procure transmissions for Mazda 6 from Ford, bringing Mazda's North American local content rate to 95 percent from the present 70 percent, the daily said.

Mazda needs to improve the competitiveness of the Mazda 6, which is a compact sedan model in the same segment as the more popular Honda Motor Co. Ltd.'s Accord and many other rival models, it said.

Mazda also plans to use Ford-made engines in 2003 or later for its Demio and Familia models to be built at Ford production plants in Europe, the newspaper said.

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