Mazda Motor Corporation has announced plans to increase their Skyactiv transmission production capacity in their Hofu Plant in Yamaguchi, Japan. This is to meet the growing sales of their Skyactive models globally.

Their current capacity  is 750,000 units annually, and will be bumped up to 1,114,000 in July 2014. This entails the addition of new machining and assembly lines, coupled with the installation of additional production equipment such as multi-function machining centers, with operations set in July 2014.

"Operations began at the Nakanoseki district of Hofu plant in December 1981, and it is now Mazda's chief transmission production facility. This is where we make Skyactiv transmissions for the Mazda CX-5, which was named Car of the Year Japan last year, and our flagship model the Mazda Atenza (known as Mazda6 overseas). Moving forward, Mazda is committed to delivering vehicles featuring Skyactiv Technology to the greatest number of customers possible and to contribute to the further development of Yamaguchi prefecture and the city of Hofu.", stated by Nariaki Uchida, Mazda's Executive Officer and General Manager of their Hofu Plant.

Mazda's plan is to strengthen production to meet their target of achieving global sales of 1.7 million vehicles annually by March 2016. Furthermore, their Hofu plant will be supported by a planned construction of a transmission plant in Thailand which has the capacity to produce around 400,000 units. Operations of this new plant are planned for March 2016.

The Mazda Axela (Mazda 3 overseas) was the first to be introduced with a Skyactiv transmission in Japan last 2011. This will be available internationally, starting with the launch in North America in autumn of this year.