New models to help Mazda crack 100K

MAZDA will renew virtually its entire model line-up by 2014, when a revolutionary new Mazda3 small-car is expected to help generate 100,000 Australian sales for the first time in a calendar year.

The ambitious new sales target was revealed to dealers more than a month ago and represents a 20,000-unit increase on this year’s forecast of 80,000 sales, which Mazda Australia should easily achieve to set its highest ever annual sales figure.

In a million-vehicle market, that would equate to a share of 10 per cent – well up on the 8.2 per cent Mazda currently enjoys.

It would cement Mazda ahead of Ford, which has long been Australia’s third best selling automotive brand behind Toyota and Holden with a current market share of 9.2 per cent.

The Japanese brand’s Australian market share continues to be second only to Israel, where an independent distributor also owns the majority of dealerships in that nation, but managing director Doug Dickson stresses that Mazda Australia does not set targets for market share rank.

Left: Mazda BT-50, Mazda2 and CX-7



“It might sound trite, but we don’t really concern ourselves with what they’re doing,” he said, adding that Mazda only sets volume and share targets for overall sales and the segments in which it competes.

While new products will be key to Mazda’s forecast sales growth over the next four years, Mr Dickson said he also expected the Australian market to increase by 1.5 per cent overall each year, and for the vehicle segments in which Mazda competes to lift by a total of three per cent.

Mazda’s Australian sales are up 12.6 per cent to the end of July this year – below the overall new-vehicle industry’s year-on-year sales increase of 15.6 per cent.

While the CX-7 compact SUV is by far Mazda’s most successful model this year with a 157 per cent sales lift, other Mazdas to increase sales include the Mazda3 small-car (up 11 per cent), CX-9 medium SUV (up 10.7 per cent) and Mazda2 light-car (up 8.3 per cent).

Mazda’s biggest loser in 2010 is the ageing RX-8 sportscar (down 46 per cent), followed by the BT-50 4x2 utility (down 19.2 per cent), MX-5 (down 8.0 per cent) and Mazda6 (down 4.2 per cent).

Sales of the BT-50 4x4 are static, but Mazda believes an all-new model to be released here in the second half of 2011 will help to almost double Mazda’s light commercial vehicle sales from 2012.

Similarly, a new Mazda2 in 2012, new Mazda6 in 2013 and new Mazda3 in 2014 will provide significant increases in three of the most popular passenger vehicle segments in Australia, while replacements for both the CX-7 and CX-9 should also drive sales increases in the top two local SUV segments.

Mr Dickson said loyal repeat buyers will continue to play a significant role in Mazda’s sales success in the forseeable future – particularly for models like the Mazda3, which remains the nation’s top-selling privately purchased vehicle and continues to out-sell Toyota’s once-dominant Corolla as Australia’s most popular small car.

“Like Toyota, we see a lot of customers simply signing up again when a new model is released,” he said. “Corolla was on top (of the small-car sales charts) for a while but there’s been continuing strong demand for the Mazda3 since it launched and we expect that to continue.”

Mazda achieved its best sales year in 2008, when it sold 79,826 vehicles, before experiencing a 2.6 per cent sales decline to 77,739 in 2009.