Liang Jiahui, can't save it?

"We all sit in Mercedes-Benz, we all ride Rolls-Royce, you take Mazda, no wonder you are stuck in traffic!"

A line in Leung Ka-fai's early years in the movie "Black Gold" made his relationship with Mazda awkward.

But in May this year, Liang Jiahui personally "refuted the rumors", "shook hands" with Mazda's official statement, and announced the endorsement of Mazda CX-50.

Image source: Changan Mazda

This "reconciliation of the century" was once rumored to be a good story in the automobile circle, but even Leung Ka-fai himself did not seem to change Mazda's gradual marginalization in the Chinese market.

According to the data, the CX-50 line has also hovered around 1,000 units since July, and in the past November, only 815 units were sold.

And there seem to be fewer and fewer Mazda on the street. "I'm all in Changan Ford 4S shop for maintenance now. Mazda CX-5 owner Lao Hu told China News Weekly that a Changan Mazda 4S store in Shijingshan, where he bought the car, has been merged with Changan Ford, and Changan Ford currently provides maintenance services.

"As an owner with a passion for Mazda, I drove a CX-5 for almost ten years. Now I want to change cars, but I can't find a model that can be upgraded in the Mazda brand. Lao Hu sighed, "The car is a good car, but unfortunately the times have changed." ”

Today, Mazda has merged, but Mazda's single product lineup in the Chinese market has not changed much. Recently, Mazda President and CEO Katsuhiro Moro said bluntly that due to very uncertain demand, he plans to slow down the promotion of electric vehicles, and lowered Mazda's global sales forecast for 2025.

Today, the growth momentum of China's auto market has shifted to the new energy sector, and it is not difficult to see from Mazda's statement that Mazda is slowing down electrification, and Mazda is focusing on the United States rather than China.

Reversing the decline, only to reduce the price?

Mazda has indeed launched a few classic models, and SKYACTIV has gained a large number of fans in the Chinese market. In 2017, Mazda reached its peak sales in the Chinese market - exceeding 300,000 units.

Unfortunately, Mazda's performance in the Chinese market has been declining since then.

From 2018 to 2021, Mazda's sales in China were 270,000 units, 220,000 units, 210,000 units, and 180,000 units, respectively.

In 2021, Mazda's two companies in China will be "merged". FAW Mazda withdrew, and all its products "went south" and merged into Changan Mazda.

At the 2021 Guangzhou Auto Show, Changan Mazda announced a channel construction plan called "441 Channel System", focusing on building 400 4S stores capable of carrying 400,000 sales, with a single-store sales capacity of more than 1,000 units.

However, this has not reversed Mazda's momentum in China. In 2022, the Chinese market became the market where Mazda's sales fell the most in the world, falling by 41.2% to only 108,100 units.

By 2023, it is uncertain whether Mazda will be able to stabilize its annual sales of 100,000 units in the Chinese market.

In the first half of 2023, Changan Mazda's cumulative sales will be 32,200 units, a year-on-year decrease of 49.4%.

Under the pressure of "halving sales", Changan Mazda finally participated in the price war.

It is undeniable that the price reduction has indeed become a "short-lived" medicine, which has played a significant role in boosting sales.

Since July this year, Changan Mazda's terminal retail sales have stopped falling and picked up, with terminal retail sales exceeding 8,000 units in August, 9,600 units sold in September, and terminal retail sales exceeding 12,800 units in October, ending the month-on-month growth momentum in November and achieving sales of 9,360 units.

Up to now, Changan Mazda's overall sales performance this year is still declining compared with last year.

Specifically, from the perspective of models, the price reduction has indeed boosted the sales of the main models. In June, the all-new Mazda3 Ankesaila was launched, with a price reduction of up to 30,000 yuan. At present, the Mazda3 Ankesaila accounts for 60.20% of Changan Mazda's sales, and is Mazda's absolute main sales force. According to the data, in November 2023, the sales volume of the Mazda3 Ankesaila was 5,635 units.

In order to seize the market, the starting price of the 2024 Mazda CX-5, which was launched in September, was directly reduced to 125,800 yuan, which is 24,000 yuan lower than the starting price of 149,800 yuan for the 2022 model. The price range of 125,800-197,800 yuan has directly entered the competition of joint venture small SUVs. In the past, the landing price of the Mazda CX-5 and above versions was basically more than 200,000 yuan, but now it is less than 200,000 yuan.

The price reduction of the 2024 Mazda CX-5 also had an immediate effect on sales, with sales of only 1,446 units in September, doubling sales of the CX-5 to 2,904 units in October and 2,851 units in November.

Mazda's models have significantly increased sales driven by price cuts, but Mazda's sales are almost only supported by the Mazda3 Ankesaila, and the monthly sales of several thousand are still difficult to say outstanding even compared with the new car-making forces.

At present, Mazda's product lineup is not rich enough, and the main models are not strong enough in the market. This makes Mazda's situation in the Chinese auto market more and more niche.

Mazda, is it "rotten" in China?

For a long time, Mazda has prided itself on being a technical school, and its products are mostly in a state of "applause". Many consumers' attitude towards it is "you buy and I recommend, I buy and I don't buy".

For the sake of sporty style, Mazda sacrificed interior space. This also makes most of Mazda's models seem cramped in terms of space. In the face of Chinese consumers' preference for large spaces, Mazda will not cater to them.

In the face of increasingly fierce market competition, most joint venture car companies are constantly innovating to maintain market popularity, but Mazda is not concerned.

Nowadays, the pattern of China's automobile market has undergone earth-shaking changes, and new energy vehicles have become more and more mainstream, while Mazda is still immersed in the mechanical literacy of fuel vehicles.

At the Guangzhou Motor Show, Mazda unveiled a hybrid version of the CX-50 Xingye, priced at 195,800-239,800 yuan, in an attempt to show Mazda's attitude towards electrification.

However, it is worth noting that the CX-50 line, which was launched at the end of May this year, in addition to the sales data of 4,158 new cars in June, sold 1,051 units, 1,012 units, 990 units, 1,072 units and 815 units respectively from July to November. Electrification of this model that is not very popular in the market is more like testing the waters of electrification, and it is difficult to contribute anything in terms of sales.

So far, Mazda has only one all-electric model in China, the CX-30 EV, and its highest monthly sales this year were 58 units in June, compared to four units in November.

Mazda does not seem to be hiding its attitude towards electrification. Katsuhiro has previously said, "It will be difficult to do business in the Chinese market unless the electrification process is accelerated." However, in a recent interview in Tokyo, Katsuhiro said that Mazda wants to slow down the process of electrification.

Mazda now expects global vehicle sales to reach 1.6 million units in 2025, down from its previous target of 1.8 million units, according to Katsuhiro Mori. The decline was mainly due to the company's consolidation of operations in China, as well as lower sales in Europe and Japan as Mazda shifted its focus from production to quality.

Mazda now aims to sell 600,000 vehicles in North America by 2025, up from 500,000 previously, according to Katsuhiro Mori. About 450,000 of those vehicles will come from the U.S. market, which would surpass the company's 1986 record of 379843 U.S. sales.

"Mazda doesn't seem to care about anything – it doesn't care about the market, it doesn't care about consumers, it doesn't care what the outside world says about it, it only cares about its own technology. Lao Hu sighed, "I once chose Mazda because of its paranoia about technology, but now, I may also give it up because of its paranoia." Mazda's current product system in China determines that it is difficult for car owners to have long-term stickiness to this brand. ”

In the era of electrification, Mazda, which has a label of "technology control", has even entrusted Toyota with the responsibility of electrification transformation. There are reports that Mazda plans to launch 7-8 new pure electric vehicles by 2030 with the help of Toyota.

Changan Mazda has previously said that it wants to be a luxury brand and develop in a more niche direction.

However, in the Chinese market, it is too difficult to be a niche car brand. Auto brands such as DS, Subaru, and Renault have all said that they are testing the path of niche brands in the Chinese market, but the final outcome has to end in withdrawing from the market. Not long ago, Mitsubishi Motors also announced its withdrawal from China.

Will Mazda, which has been declining in the Chinese market, follow this old path?

Author: Liu Shanshan