Recently, Changan Mazda officially announced that Nakajima has officially stepped down as the president of Changan Mazda Automobile Co., Ltd., and Sumioka Kei has taken over nakajima as the president of Changan Mazda Automobile Co., Ltd.
It is understood that Nakajima joined Mazda Motor Co., Ltd. in 1987 and has served as the director of Mazda's global commodity marketing department, the vice president of the North American company, and the head of Mazda's global sales & marketing headquarters, and has rich marketing experience. Nakajima's most representative move during his tenure was to lead the merger of FAW Mazda and Changan Mazda.
However, the merger of north-south Mazda did not bring the effect of 1+1>2, and the merger of resources did not bring sales help to Changan Mazda, and Changan Mazda's sales in 2021 only reached 184,000 units, which is still a downward trend year-on-year. Until February this year, Changan Mazda's sales were only more than 8,000 vehicles, down 23.8% year-on-year.
The continuous decline in sales of Changan Mazda is ultimately due to the single product line. The chairman of Mazda China has previously admitted that we fully realize that the current product line in China is indeed insufficient to meet the needs of Chinese consumers.
As many people know, the north and south volkswagens have always been adhering to the marketing model of "having more children and fighting", and Changan Mazda is just the opposite, and the product line has seriously contracted. Previously, Changan Mazda only had TheXella, CX30, CX5, CX8, and FAW Mazda's hot-selling models were only Atez and CX4, of which CX4 was a special supply car for China, after the merger of FAW Mazda and Changan Mazda, the CX-4 was cut due to property rights problems, which further reduced the product line lineup, which made the already weak product line even worse.
The biggest feature of Changan Mazda products is the combination of naturally aspirated engine plus 6AT gearbox, which is still in use so far, but with the continuous development of modern technology, turbocharged engines have become a trend, although self-priming engines cost less and have a longer service life, but for consumers, turbocharged engines can bring better power experience. Therefore, under this general trend, the market competitiveness of Changan Mazda's cars is getting lower and lower. Not only that, changan Mazda's main SUV compared to other brands of SUVs in space is not dominant, intelligent and digital and can not compete with other brands, take the changan Mazda CX-30 central control screen, the car's central control screen does not support touch screen, in China's era of intelligence, such products obviously do not meet the purchase needs of Chinese consumers.
Changan Mazda, which has always flaunted its movement, is becoming more and more like a niche brand. Regardless of its popularity or volume, it cannot be compared with first-tier joint venture brands such as Volkswagen, Toyota, Honda and Nissan, and its sense of market presence is getting lower and lower.
Just a few months ago, Changan Mazda released the new CX-50, the price range of the new car is: 26800 US dollars - 14550 US dollars, about 17-26 million yuan, although it has been released overseas for a long time, but there is still no CX-50 in the domestic market. A few days ago, Changan Mazda overseas new CX-60 listed, and like the CX-50, it still has not received any listing news in China.
This makes many consumers have to sigh that Changan Mazda, which has been closed for two years, still has to rely on a limited number of old models in China to barely maintain. The joint venture car companies we are familiar with, such as Volkswagen and Toyota, have an average monthly sales of more than 200,000 vehicles, such a huge gap, for now, Changan Mazda is far from catching up. Today's Changan Mazda sales can only match some domestic new energy electric vehicles, such as Geely and Chery new energy sales comparable to Changan Mazda.
How long can Changan Mazda, which has only 8,000 sales, last in China? We don't know. However, when Suzuki withdrew from the Chinese market, its annual sales were still more than 80,000 vehicles. How far is Changan Mazda from delisting in the face of product line suspension and almost erased presence?