Mazda Bullish on CX-3

CHICAGO – The upcoming ’16 Mazda CX-3 small CUV resides in a segment that is about to explode, Mazda’s top North American executive says.

Sharing a platform with the Mazda2, the B-segment CX-3 enters a relatively new but growing niche, where it will go head-to-head with competitors such as the Nissan Juke and Kia Soul, as well as the recently announced Honda HR-V, Jeep Renegade and Fiat 500x.

“I guarantee it, 24 months from now almost everybody will be talking about or have (a B-segment CUV) in their showroom,” Jim O’Sullivan, CEO of Mazda North American Operations, tells WardsAuto at the auto show here. “We see tremendous growth in the B-CUV segment.”

B-segment CUV sales are on the rise, according to a WardsAuto forecast. In 2010, the segment accounted for 248,344 units in the U.S., good for a 2.1% share of the market. Sales grew to 341,927 the following year, before rising to 488,020 in 2014. This year, the segment is expected to jump to 627,559, representing a 3.0% slice of the market.

O’Sullivan says the primary driver behind growth in the segment will be C-car owners going through a lifestyle change that calls for a vehicle with space, style and AWD.

“The No.1 outflow out of C-cars now is into small CUVs, and in the U.S. car parc C-cars are the biggest,” he says. “There are millions of owners in that category who have gone through their second or third vehicle in that segment and are now looking to move into something else because of lifestyle changes.”

If Mazda didn’t have the CX-3, due to go on sale in the second half of this year, it ran the risk of losing customers to automakers that did offer a subcompact CUV, O’Sullivan says.

Additionally, the new model will strengthen Mazda customer loyalty, which has been running below the industry average, he says.

“The owner loyalty of this brand has been relatively low, and the reason is we had Mazda3, Protege and Protege5, but there wasn’t anywhere for them to go onto the next steps,” O’Sullivan says, noting owner loyalty began to improve with the introduction of CUVs such as the Mazda CX-5.

“If we can organically grow our business by just taking care of our customers to get to the industry average there’s substantial opportunity, not just to conquest but to keep customers in the portfolio by having products that fit their needs as their lifestyle changes,” he says.

The Mazda CX-3 will be powered by the automaker’s Skyactiv 2.0L gas engine mated to a 6-speed Skyactiv automatic transmission. The CUV will come available with the same AWD system used in the larger CX-5 CUV and will be a selling point for the new model, not just in cold climates, but also in warmer areas such as Texas, O’Sullivan says.

“There are compelling reasons for people to consider it,” he says. It offers “ride height, ingress and egress, safety issues, all the technology and the capability of AWD, which is an added feature for many consumers,” he says.

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