Joint venture automobile assembly
Auto Alliance Co., Ltd.
or
AutoAlliance Thailand
(
AAT
) is the name of a
joint venture
automobile assembly firm co-owned by
Ford
and
Mazda
in
Rayong province
,
Thailand
. Modeled after the Ford-Mazda
AutoAlliance International
joint venture in the United States, AAT builds compact
pickup trucks
and
SUVs
primarily for the Southeast Asian market, with exports to Australia and other developing markets as well.
The factory in Thailand is designed to be similar to Mazda's
Hofu
plant, and is arranged as four squares.
[
citation needed
]
History
[
edit
]
Ford's sales in Thailand began in 1913
[1]
with the
Model T
, and in 1961 Ford began assembling vehicles there. "Anglo-Thai Motors Company", Ford's distributor (which sold
Ford Europe
and
Ford Australia
products), announced in 1960 that it would build a factory in the country, with "Thai Motor Company" the result. This was the first time cars had been built in Thailand:
Ford Capris
and
Cortinas
were assembled locally using components from the UK. Mazda first began exporting utility vehicles to Thailand in 1950. In 1974 "Sukosol & Mazda Motor Industry" was founded, opening Mazda's first knock-down assembly plant in 1975.
[2]
Ford brought Thai Motor under its corporate umbrella in 1973, but closed the factory just three years later. Ford's presence returned in 1985 with the formation of the "New Era Company" to sell cars and trucks in the country.
Construction on the AutoAlliance plant began on 28 November 1995, and the plant began mass production on 29 May 1998. The grand opening ceremony on 1 July 1998, was attended by
Chuan Leekpai
, the then-prime minister of Thailand.
Ford Thailand Manufacturing
[
edit
]
A separate second plant for Ford, "Ford Thailand Manufacturing (FTM)" was opened in 2012.
[3]
[4]
Located 14 km from AAT, the new plant has a production capacity of 150,000 vehicles a year, boosting the annual Ford Thailand production capacity to 445,000 vehicles.
[5]
The US$450 million (THB 15 billion) 750,000 m
2
(75 ha) assembly plant is fully integrated to support body assembly, paint, trim, and final assembly. Up to 85 percent of the plant's production will be for markets outside Thailand. Initially, it produced passenger cars including the Fiesta, Focus and EcoSport.
[6]
The plant started manufacturing the Ranger pickup truck in 2016,
[7]
and ended the production of passenger cars in 2018.
[8]
In December 2021, Ford announced it had invested $900 million to modernise both the Ford Thailand Manufacturing and AutoAlliance Thailand plants.
[9]
[10]
[11]
Products
[
edit
]
Current production
[
edit
]
AutoAlliance Thailand
[
edit
]
Ford Thailand Manufacturing
[
edit
]
Former production
[
edit
]
AutoAlliance Thailand
[
edit
]
Ford Thailand Manufacturing
[
edit
]
References
[
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]
External links
[
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]
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Subsidiaries
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Joint ventures and
shareholdings
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People
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Other
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Current
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Foreign
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Defunct companies
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Components
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Related topics
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