Mazda Australia's 2021 sales recovery to be driven by BT-50, CX-30, CX-8 and MX-30

Mazda Australia is hoping the silver lining of 2020, a strong fourth quarter, will give its sales recovery in 2021 some much-needed momentum.

With its year-on-year volume down 12.3 per cent in 2020, to 85,640 units, Mazda Australia fared slightly better than the overall new-vehicle market, which declined by 13.7 per cent, to 916,968.

But to the end of September 2020, Mazda Australia’s sales were actually down 23.4 per cent over the corresponding period in 2019, while the overall new-vehicle market had declined by 20.5 per cent.

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Needless to say, Mazda Australia’s sales recovery actually started in the fourth quarter of 2020, when its quarter-on-quarter volume was up 35.0 per cent. For reference, the overall new-vehicle market rose by 8.2 per cent during the same period.

Speaking to journalists at the launch of the updated CX-9 large SUV and MX-5 sports car, Mazda Australia managing director Vinesh Bhindi was pleased with the “strong finish” to 2020.

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He noted that all models bar one, the Mazda6 mid-size car, improved their month-on-month sales in December, which was the second consecutive and first month the new CX-30 small SUV and BT-50 ute sold more than 1000 units respectively.

The recently launched BT-50 arguably underpins Mazda Australia’s growth potential in 2021, with Mr Bhindi revealing “dealers continue to ramp up their stock orders”.

“We are confident BT-50 will deliver strongly throughout 2021,” he added, with a new rugged flagship due in the near future (see separate story) set to give it a further injection of life.

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The CX-30 will also have its first full year on sale in 2021, as too will petrol variants of the CX-8 large SUV, which now outsell their more expensive diesel siblings.

While it will be a niche offering, a new model will be launched this year, with mild-hybrid and all-electric versions of the MX-30 small SUV to arrive in April and July respectively.

That said, Mazda Australia’s will also be boosted by the launch of MY21 updates to its existing range, with the refreshed CX-3 light SUV, CX-9 and MX-5 in showrooms this month, while the upgraded Mazda6 is due in March.

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And then there are the MY21 updates to the Mazda3 small car, CX-30, CX-5 mid-size SUV and CX-8, with Mazda Australia marketing director Alastair Doak telling CarsGuide the former two will “probably” launch in the second half, while the latter two are ‘wait and see’.

So how hard will Mazda Australia bounce back in 2021? Mr Bhindi told CarsGuide “the year is a little bit more complicated to forecast” for obvious reasons.

“Our view late last year was that market will be around a million (sales) or just under,” he said. “Now that may change depending on what happens with the pandemic, and how successful the vaccination rollout is and all of those things.

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“There’s a lot of moving parts in this … but we see it around a million. Our planning is 90 to 95 (thousand sales) with the right opportunity, given we’ve got product updates and new products coming … but it’s more than likely to change.”

In other words, Mazda Australia is hoping for 5.1 to 10.9 per cent year-on-year growth in a new-vehicle market it reckons will improve by about 10.9 per cent. As always, though, time will tell.