Next Mazda CX-5 delayed

The next generation of Australia’s biggest-selling SUV, the Mazda CX-5, has been delayed.

As such, the current CX-5 will soldier on without fundamental change until 2023 or potentially later.

The next CX-5 is due to be based on a new large vehicle architecture that has been pushed back nine months and won’t be finished until March 2023.

Mazda president Akira Muramoto revealed the architecture’s delay in a recent interview with US trade journal Automotive News. He confirmed the architecture applied to vehicles the size of the CX-5 and upward.

This week, Mazda Australia marketing director Alastair Doak signalled more freshenings were planned to keep the CX-5 competitive.

“There will be continuation of that (updates) on a regular basis,” he said. “You can imagine we will do other things with it absolutely.”

Doak, speaking at the launch of the CX-30 small SUV, hinted other solutions were being considered.

“We will have a plan to be competitive in that marketplace. We are not talking specific models, but there are other things we are not talking about.

“There will be a plan. Forget the model, we will be competitive in the medium SUV segment.”

Mazda sold 25,539 CX-5s in Australia in 2019, basically level-pegging with 2018. It was a key result in a year when the Japanese brand’s sales dipped 12.3 per cent and below 100,000 units for the first time since 2011. However, it did stay second overall in the market behind Toyota.

The large architecture delay has been put down to a need to boost its electrification capabilities.

Powertrains the architecture is being designed to receive include inline four-cylinder and upcoming inline six-cylinder petrol and diesel engines, plug-in hybrid and 48-volt mild hybrid. The compression Skyactiv engine will also be employed by this architecture.

Recently revealed patents point to an as-yet unseen I6 version of Skyactiv and a new eight-speed auto also being suitable.

The delay of the large architecture means Mazda will lag well behind rival medium SUV brands in offering substantial electrification in the segment. Those forthcoming rivals include a Ford Escape plug-in hybrid and the Subaru Forester and XV e-boxer hybrids which are about to go on-sale. Mitsubishi already offers a plug-in version of the Outlander and Toyota a hybrid RAV4.

Asked if he saw falling behind medium SUV rivals embracing electrification as a “challenge”, Mazda Australia managing director Vinesh Bhindi said: “We’ll have to see how that unfolds, at this stage we probably can’t give you the answer you are looking for.

“Every company will have their plan and they will roll out their wares and technologies as they see fit.

“We’ve got a plan and our plan as a corporation is a little bit different because we are still trying to do a lot of work with the internal combustion engine alongside all the other bits.”

The CX-5 was first launched in 2012 and overhauled into a second generation in 2017.

Mazda’s first dabble in electrification in Australia will come with the mild hybrid Skyactiv petrol engine being rolled out in Mazda3 and CX-30 this year, while it continues to debate whether to bring the MX-30 electric vehicle to Australia.