A few months ago, when Mazda announced the merger of FAW Mazda and Changan Mazda, there were many comments in the industry that the Mazda product array led by Changan Mazda may revitalize the decline of the brand in the domestic market for some time to come. But at the time, in our opinion, the hope may not be very big, because Mazda's problem itself is not at the brand level, but at the product level. In particular, Mazda's excessive obsession with technology has led to a relatively large generational difference in the setting of many products and the main models of the same level, resulting in a relatively low sales volume.
A few days ago, Mazda released sales data for January and February, in fact, from the way of publication, it can already be seen that Mazda is embarrassed. Because Mazda consolidated its january and February sales and announced them in terms of total sales, there is no doubt that Mazda's sales in these two months were still very average, with a total of 27,000 units sold in two months, of which 16,292 were Onksela, 4,610 were Mazda CX-5s, and 2,715 Were Mazda CX-30s. This kind of sales presentation, naturally to cover up Mazda's very ugly sales data in February, in February, Mazda's sales in the domestic market were 8047 vehicles, a joint venture brand with a variety of models, single month sales of only more than 8,000 vehicles, even if the Spring Festival holiday as an excuse, it is difficult to hide the embarrassment of sluggish sales.
Of course, what is more embarrassing is that as the pillar of Mazda's sales in the absolute sense of the domestic market, Mazda OnkSela's sales in February were only 4882 vehicles, which was particularly significant compared with the decline in January, basically less than 1/2 of January's sales. It can be seen that the sharp decline in sales of Axela directly led to the downturn in Mazda's sales in the domestic market in February.
In fact, for the Mazda brand, to this point, there must be traces to follow, especially the separation of technology and market, to a large extent, the Mazda brand in the domestic market for many years to establish the foundation of reputation. As we all know, in the old Mazda 6 and Mazda 3 best-selling period, these two cars in their respective segments, are both personality and sales of the existence, and the reputation of Japanese cars for reliability and durability has been further amplified on these models, especially in the years when the entire domestic car market has not yet turned to turbocharging. Mazda's control, reliability, and design are all talked about, and to this day, there are still many old owners who are difficult to let go of Mazda's current state.
We can see Mazda's stubbornness from the product launch in the domestic market, such as the Mazda CX-8 listed at the end of 2018, as a medium and large SUV model with a length of 4955mm and a starting price of 258,800 yuan, it is equipped with a 2.5L naturally aspirated engine, the maximum horsepower is only 192Ps, driving this large-size model, it can be said that there is no power advantage. So after the car was listed, it failed, selling dozens of units in a single month, barely hundreds of cars, and now it is March 2022, the car is still not remodeled or replaced, and this car has been given up. Such a large car, with a 192-horsepower engine, is the result of a typical lack of market research, or a lack of awareness of its own situation and product positioning.
Mazda's attempt to "push" the compression engine in the domestic market is another fiasco, there is no doubt that the compression engine is the pinnacle of naturally aspirated engines, combined with the advantages of diesel engines and gasoline engines, so that small displacement engines can also burst out of powerful power, but the price is small fuel consumption. But the problem is that the cost of the compression engine is very high, so after the loading, it directly promotes the sharp increase in the price of related models, such as the Price of the 2.0L Compression Engine on the Axela is as high as 189,900, the maximum horsepower is 180 PS, close to the price of 190,000, basically has surpassed a large number of joint venture medium-sized cars, and the maximum horsepower of 180Ps, now many 1.5T turbocharged engines can be easily achieved and surpassed, but the cost is very low. Therefore, in the 2021 Unxella, the 2.0L compression-ignition engine version of the model was cancelled. The fiasco from the CX-8 and compression engines is basically a negation of Both Mazda's technical route and market route.
For a long time in the past, Mazda's concept in the domestic and foreign markets is not to rely on the trend of price advantage, but to let consumers understand the value of Mazda's automotive products, but it is clear that in the process of Mazda's pursuit of technology first, the lack of accurate control of domestic market demand, not only lost the market and sales, Mazda is proud of the so-called product value, has also been exhausted. The merger of FAW Mazda and Changan Mazda cannot fundamentally change Mazda's technical concept and market-oriented mindset rooted in the brand's "blood". Therefore, in the future, Mazda will continue to be "difficult" in the domestic market, and many may be "thrown" out of the track in the process of switching to new energy vehicles, because Mazda does not seem to be very enthusiastic about new energy vehicles.