Next-gen Mazda CX-5 locked in for Australia to fight the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid, Kia Sportage and Hyundai Tucson.

The next-generation Mazda CX-5 is coming Down Under.

Mazda Australia has confirmed the new CX-5 mid-size SUV will return amid the brand’s push upmarket with its large SUV portfolio that will soon consist of the CX-60, CX-70, CX-80 and CX-90.

“We will definitely have a next-generation CX-5, absolutely, that’s the plan,” said Mazda Australia’s marketing boss Alastair Doak.

“It’s well in its development phase. There’s not much more we can say about that, other than it’s definitely coming.”

This squashes rumours the CX-5 would be replaced by the similar sized CX-50 currently available in the US and China.

The CX-5 has been the brand’s best selling model for some time and has been a strong seller in the US, too.

Details are scarce but a line in the brand’s recent End of Financial Year documents revealed it was developing in-house hybrid tech to power the next-gen CX-5. This is in place of the Toyota-developed set-up fitted to the CX-50.

It isn’t expected to be a plug-in hybrid, either, but a genuine alternative to the popular Toyota RAV4 Hybrid.

Mazda is also working on a rotary-powered range extender hybrid, but that is unlikely to find its way into the next-gen CX-5 anytime soon.

A hybrid option would be essential for the next-gen CX-5 as the spectre of the federal government’s impending New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) looms large over the Australian market.

The NVES will slap car brands with a fine for every vehicle they sell that produces CO2 over a certain level - this threshold gets lower every year.

Car brands can offset the sales of high polluting vehicles with sales of EVs.

It would make sense for the next-gen CX-5 to arrive sometime next year to help get under the NVES CO2 cap.

Mr Doak said the Mazda CX-5 was an important vehicle to help funnel customers to its more expensive range of SUVs such as the CX-60 and CX90.

“Every year there were customers who got to a point in our range - say it was a top of the range CX-5 - as the then flagship five seater, and they would say ‘my income levels have got better, my life circumstances have changed, what’s next?’,” he said.

“We saw that every single year, those customers don’t run out. They still go through that cycle.”