Mazda's U.S. dealers will get a redesigned Mazda3 early this year, but they are anxiously awaiting a new crossover to keep up with demand for light trucks.
"The biggest anxiety out there for the Mazda dealer body is with the new relationship with Toyota, and what model they're going to be building out of Huntsville, Ala.," Jim Bagan, Mazda National Dealer Advisory Council chairman, told Automotive News in a phone interview. "There's a lot of anxiety about that."
Bagan is co-owner of Roger Beas- ley Automotive Group, which has four Mazda stores in the Austin, Texas, area, as well as Hyundai, Genesis and Mitsubishi franchises. The new Mazda crossover will be built in Alabama at a joint-venture plant with Toyota Motor Corp. starting in 2021. The factory also will build a redesigned Toyota Corolla.
Bagan said Mazda dealers haven't seen their new crossover yet. The joint-venture partners broke ground for the plant in November. "The dealers are excited to see what that car will look like, and what we're going to go after" in terms of market positioning and target market, Bagan said.
Masahiro Moro, CEO of Mazda North American Operations, told Automotive News that he's looking for "mainstream territory so we can capitalize [on] that capacity as much as we can."
In the meantime, Mazda will begin rolling out its redesigned Mazda3 sedan and hatchback this year.
Mazda's U.S. sales in 2018 rose 3.8 percent from a year earlier to 300,325 vehicles.
Reflecting demand for light trucks, combined sales of Mazda's crossovers — the CX-3, CX-5 and CX-9 — outnumbered cars by a ratio of nearly 2-to-1. Its car sales fell 13 percent, while light-truck sales rose 15 percent.
A redesigned version of Mazda's volume leader, the CX-5 compact crossover, reached the U.S. in 2017. Bagan said it has been a hit.
CX-5 sales rose 18 percent last year and accounted for more than half of Mazda's U.S. volume.
"The CX segment has definitely taken over the majority of the volume for our operation," Bagan said.
"It's representing, I think, 60 to 65 percent of the overall sales of the company."
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