Mazda will not give up on passenger cars

SUVs now account for more sales of new cars in Australia than passenger cars. It's why there's a rush for importers in the VFACTS top 10 to fill out their model range with SUVs.

And in the case of some importers the SUVs essentially replace the brand's passenger-car range altogether.

But there will be no such 'future-proofing' from Mazda, according to Mazda Australia MD Vinesh Bhindi, passenger cars have their place in the local line-up.

“In Australia the small [passenger car] segment is still a sizeable chunk,” Bhindi told carsales the day the Mazda CX-30 (pictured) was unveiled in Geneva.

“Yes, it's declining, yes, it's not number one, but it's sizeable. Medium car segment, again, was huge. But it has come back and it's stabilised now... and there is still demand for it, so there are bands of those sort of... [passenger] cars body styles.

“From Mazda's point of view, the intent is to continue the passenger range, the SUV range and the BT-50 ...

“We come across consumers who don't like SUVs; they would prefer traditional sedans or [a] high-style hatch.

“It is definitely shifting, but Mazda Corporation is not planning to become an SUV company... unlike others.”

All the same, SUVs are a force to be reckoned with in the market – not just in Australia and the USA, but even in Europe these days. The more SUVs in the range, the stronger a brand's sales will be over time. Even in Mazda's case, SUV sales in Australia were close to 47 per cent of the brand's total, last year. And the CX-30 has the potential to lift Mazda's annual SUV sales above 50 per cent.

Mazda Australia Marketing Director, Alastair Doak, fully admits that there's room in the local Mazda range for a car like the CX-30, and the new SUV will likely find its own sales base without encroaching to any large degree on CX-3 or CX-5 territory.

“It's the perfect scenario for us, because CX-3, [about] which [journalists] are always saying: 'Isn't it too small...?', it has been number one in that segment. It's currently number two...

“So people vote with their feet and say: 'Actually that's the perfect size...'

“But we also know [this]: that in Europe they're saying that it's the fastest growing segment. And it's one of the fastest-growing segments in Australia.

“So we're going to have a second, larger [SUV] in that small segment.

“Suddenly we'll have two players in the small segment and two players in the large segment with CX-8 and CX-9, so we can see where the demand is...”

And in the meantime the CX-5 in between will soldier on, delivering Mazda the strongest sales of any SUV in the market last year and continuing to do so for the first two months of 2019.