Mazda Shows Off Malaysia Assembled New CX-5 And New Paint Shop In Kulim
Mazda Malaysia Sdn Bhd, the sales and production arm of Mazda Motor Corporation in Malaysia has officially rolled out the all-new Mazda CX-5 crossover and introduced its new paint shop in its Kulim production facility to local business partners and regional media and dealers.
Members of the media were also given a tour of the production facility, from the welding lines to installation to painting and quality control. The Mazda plant in Kulim, Kedah follows the same processes and guidelines as that in Mazda’s facilities in Ujina and Hofu, Japan, to ensure consistent production quality. Part of the body welding has been automated with welding robots for that reason.
The 2.3 billion Yen (RM 86 million) investment into automation as well as the new paint shop which can churn out vehicles in Mazda’s signature colors, allow the Kulim facility to produce the latest models from Mazda. The first of which is the soon-to-be-launched CX-5, which will be for not just Malaysia and Thailand, like the current model, but also for Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia and Myanmar (the latter 3 are left-hand-drive markets).
“We see Malaysia as an important production base in the ASEAN region and, with the aim of establishing a sturdy production system, we’ve worked closely with our business partners to develop manufacturing of Mazda cars here,” said Masatoshi Maruyama, Mazda’s Managing Executive Officer in charge of Global Production and Business Logistics. “In addition to enabling the production of cars in Soul Red Crystal and Machine Gray, colors that represent the Mazda brand, these new measures strengthen a consistent production framework based on Mazda’s manufacturing concepts and technologies. We will continue efforts to raise quality levels even higher, and I’m confident that cars manufactured here will satisfy customers in every market.”
Hiroshi Inoue, Mazda’s Managing Executive Officer in charge of ASEAN business said, “Customers in ASEAN markets are constantly raising the bar for Mazda’s products, technologies and quality standards. We see it as our mission to offer value that exceeds their expectations. And the Malaysia-made all-new CX-5, which is imbued with Mazda’s passion for car-making, is just the model to do that. Moving forward, we will continue working closely with our business partners to contribute to the development of the automotive industry in Malaysia, and aim to enrich people’s lives with cars that provide driving pleasure.”
While the production and paint facilities were the stars of the show, we couldn’t help but be distracted by the new Mazda CX-5. It will be launched in Malaysia in early October but Bermaz Auto, the local distributor has already revealed the variants and prices.
The 5 CX-5 variants available are the 2.0L GL (RM 135k), 2.0L GLS (RM 149k), 2.5L GLS (RM 161k) powered by the Skyactiv-G petrol engines; and the 2.2L GLS 2WD (RM 165k), 2.2L GLS AWD (RM 175k) powered by the Skyactiv-D diesel engines. Only the range-topping diesel variant is all-wheel-drive and all variants use the 6-speed Skyactiv Drive automatic transmission with manual shift mode.
Some of the features we can expect are LED headlights with auto leveling, LED fog lights, MZD Connect infotainment with voice command, 7″ touchscreen display, multi-function command controller, 4 USB ports, 3 12V ports, i-Stop idling technology, G-Vectoring Control, Traction Control, Hill Start Assist, Blind Spot Monitoring System, Rear Cross Traffic Alert, Lane Departure Warning System, Lane Keep Assist System, Driver Attention Alert and Smart City Brake Support.
