Mazda has an ambitious plan for Mexico. The Japanese brand wants to double its market share in the country and to achieve this it will launch three new SUVs and seek to expand the versions of some models, focusing on the lower part of the key segments.
“Now we compete in the upper part of the segments… In some we have the most expensive versions, but we are going to expand the range,” Miguel Barbeyto, president of Mazda Mexico, said in an interview.
The Japanese brand is the seventh best-selling in the Mexican market. In 2021, Mazda sold 46,901 units, equivalent to a 4.6% market share, according to data from the Mexican Association of Automotive Distributors.
Barbeyto said that the corporation sees the potential in the Mexican market to have a volume similar to that of the Australian market, where Mazda sells around 100,000 units a year and where it has maintained a 10% market share.
More accessible versions of local production models
Today Mazda competes in the high base of the segments where it has a presence. For example, the entry version of its Mazda3 compact sedan is worth 394,900 pesos, while the Nissan Sentra – the best-selling model in the segment – starts at 363,900 pesos, according to the manufacturers’ price lists.
A similar phenomenon occurs with the CX-30 SUV, which has an entry price of 487,900 pesos, almost 90,000 more than the Kia Seltos – segment leader – whose price starts at 393,900 pesos. Although the two versions are not comparable in terms of equipment, Mazda sees an opportunity to capture more volume with the introduction of more affordable versions.
Mazda has a plant in Salamanca, Guanajuato, where it produces the Mazda3 sedan, Mazda2 –sedan and hatchback– and CX-30 models. All are assembled in both gasoline and mild-hybrid engines.
In the second half of the year, the production of the CX-3 crossover will start, whose production will be exclusively for local consumption. This model
With the addition of the CX-3 and some entry versions of the other models produced at the complex, Mazda hopes to reach production of 200,000 units.
“Economies of scale play an important role because they allow us to offer a more competitive range of versions and prices,” said Barbeyto.
The plant has the capacity to produce up to 250,000 units, but in 2020 and 2021 production was around 120,000 units. The closure of the plant during the sanitary confinement of 2020 and the shortage of semiconductors that marked 2021 affected the production volumes of the complex.
Three new SUVs
Mazda will also launch three new models – the CX50, CX-70 and CX-90 – over the next 18 months to strengthen its presence in the compact and midsize SUV segments.
The first to arrive will be the CX-50, whose production began in January 2022 at the plant in Alabama, United States; a complex built hand in hand with Toyota, with the capacity to manufacture up to 300,000 vehicles per year.
The CX-50 will be positioned above the CX-5 in both size and price, and will be the first Mazda model to incorporate some off-road capabilities, such as a terrain selector.
“CX-5 is a very sophisticated city product, while CX-50 is more for the outdoors. They are two very different segments of people,” said Barbeyto.
The manager explained that CX-70 and CX-90 will arrive “later” in 2023.
