Why is Mazda's blockbuster new car only on fire for a month?
In 2020, Mazda announced that it would "go into hiatus" for two years - no more new cars until 2022, and concentrate all the brand's resources on the development of a new generation of products. After a three-year hiatus, Mazda also brought a new masterpiece after several years of hiatus, the CX50 line.
Now that the CX50 has been on the market for almost a year, let's take a look back at the car's market performance and see how this model that has been given high hopes has performed.
It was only on fire for a month
At the end of May last year, the CX-50 line was also officially launched, with a price of 159,800-206,800 yuan, and a rare "lifetime free warranty" service was given to the joint venture car. At the launch conference, the CX-50 line also announced that the large order exceeded 8,000 units.
In June of that year, the CX-50 line did sell 4,158 units, making it Mazda's best-selling model. At the "MAZDA DAY" theme 2023 fan ceremony at the end of June, Changan Mazda also announced in a high-profile manner that Liang Jiahui officially became the product spokesperson of Changan Mazda CX-50 Xingye, and also played a big Internet meme, "driving Mazda without traffic jams".
Suddenly, the CX-50 line has reached a new height in terms of sales and popularity. However, after reaching the top, all that's left is downhill.
In July 2023, the sales of the CX-50 Xingye quickly fell to 1,051 units, and in the following months, the average monthly sales of the CX-50 Xingye were only about 1,000 units. In the four months from November last year to February this year, the monthly sales of the CX-50 line also fell to several hundred units.
There is progress in the new car, but not much
As a global model, Mazda chose to introduce the CX-50 line into China after three years of silence in China, which is enough to see that Mazda is full of confidence in this new car. Mazda has also learned the lessons of not selling well in China in the past and has made some improvements to this new car.
First of all, in terms of ride space, we all know that Mazda's past models such as Angkesaila, Artez, and CX-5 have a very small ride space compared to competitors of the same level, so that most family users will not choose Mazda.
The CX-50 line is also a compact SUV, but it has an ultra-wide body of 1920mm and a wheelbase of 2815mm. In addition, after localization, the rear legroom has been increased by 55mm compared to the overseas version, and the protruding height of the rear center floor has been reduced, and a large sunroof has been added, all of which are compromised on comfort.
However, although the CX-50 line is also more spacious, it uses a rear torsion beam suspension, which has no advantage over many independent suspension competitors in its class.
In addition, in order to comply with the importance of Chinese consumers for in-vehicle intelligence, all Mazda CX-50 models are equipped with the third-generation Mazda InfoLink system as standard. Although it supports 4G, it is equipped with Kuwo Music and AutoNavi navigation, and it also supports OTA upgrades, car-machine interconnection, and car-home interconnection.
But this screen does not support touch control, and physical knob buttons are needed to realize the operation of the car machine. And the screen is far away from the main driver, and the 10.25-inch size gives a poor visual impression.
In addition, compared with the overseas 2.5L + 2.5T power combination, the domestic fuel version uses a 2.0L + 2.5L combination. Mazda's two sets of power have been used for more than 10 years, and at the moment, whether it is power, fuel consumption or NVH performance, it is not eye-catching.
Therefore, although the CX-50 line has made some changes to cater to the Chinese people, but on the whole, it is still in the same vein as the past Mazda models, and the CX-50 line also gives limited attraction to both family users and young people who like intelligence.
Is price reduction the only way out?
How can we boost sales of the CX-50? In fact, Mazda itself knows the way to break the game, and that is to reduce prices. Before 2023, Mazda has always been considered a brand with persistence, on the one hand, it adheres to the technical route, and on the other hand, it insists on price.
However, Mazda also broke the routine last year, and the price of the 2023 Mazda3 Ankesaila, which was launched in July last year, dropped by up to 30,000 yuan, and the price range dropped to 89,900-141,900 yuan.
In addition, the Mazda CX-5 has been reduced by 30,000 yuan when it was remodeled in 2022, and after the 2024 model was launched in September last year, it was reduced by 24,000 yuan, and now the guide price of the 2024 Mazda CX-5 is only 125,800-197,800 yuan.
The effect of the price reduction is also obvious, before the price reduction, the monthly sales of Ankesaila were only more than 1,000 units. After the price reduction, the monthly sales of Ankesaila reached more than 8,000 units, and the sales volume increased several times.
Similarly, the Mazda CX-5 sold only a few hundred units a month before the price reduction of the new model, and after the price reduction, it also increased several times, and even sold 3,951 units in December last year.
Mazda has tasted the sweetness of price reduction, but the price reduction is sugar water and poison, for those products that have been on the market for many years and do not sell well, their research and development costs have long been flattened, and now the price reduction will not cause too many old car owners to be dissatisfied.
However, the CX-50 line is also a brand new model that has been on the market for less than a year, and if the price is significantly reduced just after it is launched, it will inevitably reduce the brand tone of Mazda. Therefore, even the CX-50 line did not sell well after its launch, and it was only promoted through some small preferential policies.
However, on March 16, the CX-50 also released a wave of big moves. Before April 30, 2024, the CX-50 line will also drop by up to 17,000 yuan for a limited time, with the 2.5L Changxing version starting at 169,800 yuan, the 2.0L model starting at 149,800 yuan, and the 2.5L Yuexing version starting at only 158,800 yuan.
Looking at the CX-50 line of current competitors, Honda CR-V currently has more than 30,000 discounts, Toyota RAV4 Rongfang currently has more than 30,000 discounts, and Volkswagen Tanyue has a discount of 50,000 yuan. These cars are better than CX-50 in terms of popularity and reputation, and CX-50 still has no obvious advantage in terms of cost performance compared with their current preferential policies.
The big coffee summarizes
Although the CX-50 line has also made some adjustments for the domestic market, judging from the results, the CX-50 line is still relatively conservative and does not have much innovation. In addition, the joint venture SUV market is getting smaller and smaller, and the opponents are getting more and more rolled, is there any other way for the CX-50 to go in the future except for price reduction?