Mazda CX-8 petrol ruled out for Australia

The whole point of the Mazda CX-8 was to offer a seven-seat diesel SUV, and that isn’t going to change anytime soon.

That’s the message from Mazda Australia, following a recent announcement out of Japan that in the brand’s home market there would be a turbocharged petrol version of the CX-8.

The new 2.5-litre turbo petrol four-cylinder has just been added to the CX-5 medium SUV, and is already available in the bigger CX-9 seven-seater. So, according to Mazda Australia marketing director, Alastair Doak, there’s no reason to consider a petrol CX-8.

“When we brought in the new CX-8, we did so as a point of difference. That was the justification for offering the diesel model here,” he said. 

Mazda says the CX-9 fills the spot of a petrol seven-seat SUV, so there's no need for a petrol CX-8.

The CX-8 hasn’t set the sales charts alight in its first few months on sale, registering only 1128 sales from June to the end of October. By this year’s sales figures, that’s less than the CX-5 averages in two weeks - but it’s early days yet for the diesel-powered CX-8 seven-seater.

Another SUV we won’t see in Australia is the CX-4, which is essentially a swoopy-roofed version of the CX-5. That model is made in China in left-hand drive only, and as such, won’t be sold locally.

Despite all that, the CX-3, CX-5, CX-8 and CX-9 are set to combine for more than 50,000 Mazda SUVs sold in Australia in 2018. To the end of October, Mazda had managed to sell 44,011 SUVs, against 39,093 passenger cars and 11,142 utes. 

“We’re very happy with the range that we’ve got, and everything is firing well,” said Doak. Basically, everything that’s available to us, we have. We will consider adding extra SUVs if more things become available to us.”

And it seems there is more to come - Doak suggested that 2019 could see “some pretty good things”, but wouldn’t say anymore than that.

Would you choose a petrol or diesel seven-seater? Tell us in the comments below.