Mazda plans to enter India - But who are they?

Japan's fifth largest automobile company Mazda Motor Corporation could enter India as a fully owned subsidiary, Telegraph writes. Mazda has officially confirmed its interest in India and rumors are afoot on Ford Fiesta-based Mazda 2 hatchback playing the company's first offering for the compact car-loving market.

Many Mazda products employ Ford platforms prompting the idea that the two companies will cooperate at the manufacturing level. The Mazda 2 hatchback is based on the Ford Fiesta, Mazda Axela uses the Ford Focus platform, Mazda Premacy MPV shares underpinnings with the C-Max, Mazda BT-50 and Ford Ranger pickup (and next gen Endeavour SUV) share a common platform, and the Mazda 6 is based on the CD3 platform on which Ford Fusion and Edge models sit on.

The music and story of the following video explains Mazda's pursuit in today' world of crowded and herd-mentality car manufacturers. It makes me want to go out and buy a Mazda!

In April, Ford India officials told IndianAutosBlog that their interest lies in bringing the B-, C- and CD-Platforms to India, which interestingly the aforementioned Mazda products use. Ford intends to bring eight vehicles based on global platforms to India by 2015 and could look for an additional facility to roll out these cars from.

In India, Skoda and Volkswagen manufacture their cars jointly in Chakan, Pune, and Nissan manufactures its cars alongside Renault products at Oragadam, Chennai.

Mazda also sells rebadged Suzuki kei cars in Japan. Ready examples are the AZ-Wagon (Wagon R), Carol (Japanese Alto) and AZ-Offroad (Jimny). The company intends to sell 3 lakh vehicles in emerging markets like Russia, Brazil and India per annum.