Colombia Opens Talks to Bring Mazda Assembly Back After 12 Years

Talks cover a plant and parts suppliers, but Mazda has not decided

Colombia’s government has opened talks with Japanese automaker Mazda Motor Corporation (TYO: 7261; OTC: MZDAY) on resuming vehicle assembly in the country, including a possible assembly plant and a role for Colombian parts suppliers, 12 years after Mazda vehicles stopped coming off a Bogotá assembly line. Mauricio Gómez Amín, who heads the Ministerio de Comercio, Industria y Turismo (MinCIT, Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism), met with Mazda representatives in Bogotá on October 8, according to Infobae Colombia. The ministry is conducting the talks together with the trade and investment promotion agency ProColombia.

“We went to Tokyo a few weeks ago and said that we wanted to see Mazda in Colombia. Here they are. Here we are talking with them, opening the country’s doors to them and telling them that we want them back in Colombia,” Gómez Amín said in a MinCIT statement dated October 9.

Mazda has not announced a decision, according to Infobae Colombia. Ángela Patricia López, president of Mazda Colombia, said the company appreciates “the interest expressed regarding the possible participation of Mazda in potential assembly scenarios in Colombia” and that “the opportunities will be studied within the strategic framework of the organization,” La República reported.

Representatives of Mazda, MinCIT and ProColombia meet in Bogotá to discuss a possible assembly plant and supplier opportunities. (Photo courtesy MinCIT)

According to MinCIT, the meeting explored options for industrial investment, including a possible assembly plant and auto parts production, and the possibility of bringing Colombian companies in as suppliers of accessories, spare parts and components, both for the domestic market and for sales to other countries in the region. The ministry said that any plant would depend on feasibility studies and on decisions Mazda makes. No investment amount, location or timetable has been set, Portafolio reported.

Gómez Amín said the ministry would support Mazda’s evaluation and work on conditions for long-term investment, including legal certainty, physical security and clear rules, according to MinCIT.

“As minister, I am going to do whatever I have to do so that you set up your plant here in Colombia.”

— Mauricio Gómez Amín, minister of commerce, industry and tourism

The Bogotá plant closed in 2014

Mazda vehicles were assembled in Bogotá by the Compañía Colombiana Automotriz (CCA) from 1983 until April 30, 2014, according to Portafolio. By the time of the closure, the plant was using only 30% of its installed capacity and assembling 57 vehicles a day, and its payroll had fallen from 1,600 workers to 500, La República reported. “Sales volumes are not sufficiently in proportion to the plant’s production,” Fabio Sánchez, then president of the CCA, told Portafolio at the time.

In a May 1, 2014, statement, the CCA said the decision to end assembly followed a review of Mazda Motor Corporation’s global competitiveness, after which the automaker concluded that its Colombian business would continue on a model of importing its full lineup, La República reported. On May 23, 2014, Mazda announced that Mazda de Colombia S.A.S. had begun operations to handle imports, sales and after-sales service, according to Portafolio. Mazda’s vehicles sold in Colombia currently come from Japan and México, Infobae Colombia reported.

The approach began in Tokyo

A Mazda representative speaks during the meeting with MinCIT and ProColombia officials. (Photo courtesy MinCIT)

The October meeting follows Gómez Amín’s August 22 to 27 mission to Tokyo, according to Infobae Colombia. During that trip, the minister met with executives of Mazda, El Tiempo reported. On August 27, he and Toshimitsu Motegi, who heads Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, agreed to instruct their technical teams to continue talks aimed at reactivating negotiations on an Economic Partnership Agreement between the two countries, MinCIT said. Those negotiations formally opened in December 2012 and have never reached signature, as Finance Colombia reported in September.

President Abelardo de la Espriella referred to the Mazda effort in a televised address on August 30. “We are working, for example, so that Mazda can assemble vehicles in Colombia again,” he said, according to Infobae Colombia.

MinCIT placed the Mazda talks within the Misión Crecer (Growth Mission), the government’s strategy to accelerate gross domestic product growth and attract domestic and foreign investment. Vice President José Manuel Restrepo presented the strategy’s first four fronts to de la Espriella, Portafolio reported on September 16. The strategy coordinates 10 ministries, and the government’s target is 6% growth, according to Portafolio. The four fronts are incentives and legal stability arrangements for investors, a bank of high-value-added investment projects, regulatory simplification, and labor productivity and formalization.

A skeptical view on the market’s size

José Clopatofsky, director of Motor magazine, called the idea “improbable” in an interview with El Tiempo and said “Colombia’s market is too small to support an additional plant.” He said almost no brand faces a tax burden for selling its cars in Colombia, which favors importing over producing locally.

Colombia registered 213,377 new vehicles between January and August 2026, up 42.1% from the same period of 2025, according to figures from the Asociación Nacional de Empresarios de Colombia (ANDI, the National Business Association of Colombia) and the Federación Nacional de Comerciantes Empresarios (Fenalco, the National Federation of Merchants and Business Owners) cited by El Tiempo.

Headline photo: Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism Mauricio Gómez Amín (center) with representatives of Mazda and ProColombia in Bogotá. (Photo courtesy MinCIT)