The phrase ‘absence makes the guts grow fonder’ may appear an unusual one to use within the motoring industry, nevertheless it’s one which Mazda’s UK boss uses for the brand’s newly relaunched cornerstone model.
The CX-5 SUV has been the UK’s best-selling Mazda in recent times, with greater than 103,000 sold here because it arrived in 2012, and the brand new third-generation model is as a consequence of start arriving in showrooms next month. Nevertheless, it hasn’t been a seamless transition from the second-generation automobile, which went off sale in January – a spot which Jeremy Thomson, the brand’s UK MD, acknowledges has been significant for dealers.
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The phrase ‘absence makes the guts grow fonder’ may appear an unusual one to use within the motoring industry, nevertheless it’s one which Mazda’s UK boss uses for the brand’s newly relaunched cornerstone model.
The CX-5 SUV has been the UK’s best-selling Mazda in recent times, with greater than 103,000 sold here because it arrived in 2012, and the brand new third-generation model is as a consequence of start arriving in showrooms next month. Nevertheless, it hasn’t been a seamless transition from the second-generation automobile, which went off sale in January – a spot which Jeremy Thomson, the brand’s UK MD, acknowledges has been significant for dealers.
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Chatting with Automotive Management on the UK media launch of the brand new CX-5, Thomson said: “The dealer network have been waiting with bated breath for this automobile to return to market. They’ll have it of their showrooms in June, July, and clearly we’ll be selling hard particularly for September.
“It’s a crucial automobile for them. It’s historically been our bestseller. It’s got very strong brand loyalty with Mazda customers. And I believe we felt the absence of the automobile – it almost reminds us all the importance of it.
“I believe sometimes if you run one automobile line right into one other, it is a form of natural segue, whereas I believe it is the absence of this, it made the guts grow fonder. The network really are anticipating it – particularly for the retail element of their business.”
Thomson said the gap because the second-generation CX-5 went off sale was as a consequence of type approval expiring on that model – but added that the UK’s Mazda dealers had no less than seen a greater scenario than those in the remaining of Europe.
He said: “In continental Europe, that they had a 12 months gap for his or her network. But due to Brexit, we follow a rather different pattern to the EU and the UK Government has sought to diverge from the EU on matters like homologation – not significantly, nevertheless it meant that the UK was in a position to proceed selling the CX-5 for longer.
“For that reason, we built a big variety of them within the last couple of months of production and we sold them out through the back end of last 12 months when Europe was unable to sell any. Because of this of that, our dealers have had the good thing about CX-5 for lots longer than they may otherwise have done.”
Mazda dealers ‘excited’ by latest CX-5
Thomson said that dealers who had recently had a preview of the brand new CX-5 in left-hand drive form were “tremendously excited” about its potential.
He explained: “From a price viewpoint, it’s pretty much like the outgoing model. It’s recognisably CX-5. and yet in virtually every respect, noticeably higher.
“So, it’s a very simple sell to customers who can have had two or three CX-5s back to back, but not seen an awful lot of difference between models over that point. This is kind of a big step forward – albeit with a combustion engine. But that is in a world where 4 out of 5 retail customers are still buying combustion-engined cars.”
When asked how long the petrol mild hybrid CX-5 could proceed as Mazda’s best-seller given the legislative move towards electrification, Thomson acknowledged that as laws stands, the present powertrain would wish to finish in 2030. Nevertheless, he said Mazda can be monitoring the UK Government’s current review of the ZEV mandate for any extension of sales of plug-in cars.
As for whether the CX-5 might be further electrified, for example as a plug-in hybrid, Thomson said that he wouldn’t rule it out, but equally that no such move was currently planned.
Recent EVs join ‘unprecedented’ Mazda launch schedule
Mazda’s electrified portfolio is at any rate set to expand this 12 months, with the arrival of two latest full EVs – the Mazda6e upper-medium automobile and CX-6e SUV.
Thomson said: “Launching three all-new cars within the space of six months I believe is unprecedented for the Mazda brand.
“It’s a variety of excellent news for the network, and I believe we’ll see each growth and profit strengthening throughout the remaining of this 12 months.”
While the CX-5 is a automobile with big retail appeal, the pure EVs might be expected to draw more interest from the fleet market – although Thompson expects the CX-6e as an SUV to have a greater retail sales mix than the 6e, and says even the latter automobile is seeing some private orders are available in.
He said: “The 6e goes to be a really strong fleet automobile. Loads of people have had a Mazda6 as their company automobile up to now, and now we have got a automobile that can sell strongly into the BIK-led demand that we see in fleet channels.
“But quite a few dealers are already taking orders from retail customers for that automobile because they’re fascinated by it from a perspective of that they had a Mazda6 sooner or later and so they see a variety of potential on this automobile to be their first step into electrification.”
Recent models tipped to steer Mazda sales rebound
With the gap in CX-5 sales, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Mazda’s UK registrations were down by nearly 7% year-on-year to the tip of April, in response to Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) data. Thomson is confident that the brand will quickly get back on course.
He said: “We’ll sell around 30,000 cars this 12 months – that’s the plan. But that is just six months of the CX-5, six months of the Mazda6e, and one month of the CX-6e. So, after we take a look at 2027, I believe we’ll grow from around 30,000 to probably about 37,500.”
Mazda has seen some shrinkage in its dealer network over the past couple of years, from 122 quoted in 2024 to “about 112” now, in response to Thomson, including around 60 distinct dealer operations, starting from standalone dealers to groups reminiscent of AM100 members Stoneacre and Arnold Clark.
He said: “We see the groups wanting to grow with Mazda, and see there may be a strength in numbers.
“But we’re still very, very keen on the normal owner-driver businesses, who’ve put their heart and soul right into a single brand with Mazda. And I believe they will see that loyalty and commitment come good in the following six months with all these latest automobile launches.”
Thomson is expecting stability this 12 months when it comes to Mazda dealer numbers, but more scale through each of those dealerships.
He said: “There will probably be more volume, which can inevitably result in greater profit, but with none requirement for further expansion.”
When asked about Mazda’s ability to resist the impact on dealer footprint of latest brands entering the UK automobile market, including those from China, Thomson said: “A few of our existing dealer groups are taking up a few of those Chinese brands, and naturally, that is entirely fair and reasonable.
“We just have to stay true to our strengths to make sure that we proceed and remain differentiated from them because our very strong brand loyalty that we enjoy with our particular customer demographic, good aftersales and used automobile businesses. You would like all of those different elements to return together to create a viable business model and I believe Mazda can offer lots in all of those areas. But primary, after all, is at all times going to be strong product that has high customer pull.
“It keeps us all on our game. You’ve got got to stay very, very competitive. You’ve got got to proceed doing what we do well. And there is not any space for complacency on this market.”
This Article First Appeared At www.am-online.com
