MADRID – Mazda sold 18,275 vehicles in Spain in 2016, a 20% year-over-year improvement and nine percentage points better than the market’s overall growth. It was the Japanese automaker’s fourth consecutive year of growth in Europe’s third-largest market after Germany and the U.K.
Mazda Spain CEO Jose M. Terol says the company is capitalizing on two major market trends: the growth of the CUV sector and the increased demand for vehicles with gasoline engines.
The statistics, while positive, are not overwhelming. Mazda ranks ninth in SUV sales in Spain and has a mere 4% share of the market, not including fleet and business-sector sales. The CX-5 and CX-3 CUVs combined for more than 11,000 deliveries last year, or more than 60% of all Mazda sales in the country.
But its sales of gasoline-powered cars show Mazda is on the right track in Spain. About 10,000 units sold in 2016 were gasoline models, up 57% from prior-year compared with the overall market’s 27%.
Mazda is forecasting a flat result this year in Spain, where it estimates selling only about 18,500 units. Terol says that is because he expects the midyear launch of its best-selling CX-5 to curtail sales of the model it will replace.
Mazda also plans to continue renovating its lineup, adding the MX-5 RF sports convertible with retractable hardtop and a special series of the CX-3.
A new generation of Skyactiv models is due at the end of 2018. In 2019, a year before its centenary, the automaker will add an all-electric model to its lineup and introduce plug-in hybrids two years after that.
Mazda’s retail network in Spain, comprising 59 dealers and 82 sale points, closed 2016 with an overall 1.7% net profit, but the 25 highest-volume dealers saw profits rise an average 3.6%. Terol predicts profitability will average 1.8% this year, nudged upward by a slight increase in aftermarket business.
Mazda sales throughout Europe rose 12% in 2016, marking a fourth consecutive year of growth and double the market’s overall 6% growth rate. The automaker’s 240,000 deliveries were good for a 1.5% market share. The CX-5 and CX-3 accounted for almost half of Mazda’s profits in the region.
