Mazda sales in China fall 16% in May

A total of 88,000 Mazdas have been sold in China from January to May, Caijing reported today, quoting a statement made by Mazda China executives. However, the manufacturer only sold 16,000 vehicles in May, representing a year-on-year decrease of 16 percent.

Individual sales results from Mazda's two Chinese joint ventures, Changan Mazda and FAW Mazda, were mixed. FAW Mazda sold a total of 51,000 vehicles from January to May, nine percent less than what it sold in the first five months of 2011, while counterpart Changan Mazda sold 36,000 vehicles in the five month period, growing 21 percent from last year.

Although Mazda China Board Chairman and CEO Noriaki Yamada admitted that sales in May failed to meet expectations, he is still confident that the hot-selling Mazda3 Xingcheng (pictured above), which made its market debut in the last September, will help the manufacturer recover later in the latter half of the year.

Some analysts point to Mazda's lack of attention to the Chinese market as one of its key failings. "FAW Mazda's models are fairly old, and the speed with which they update them is incredibly slow," Liu Feng, an analyst with Southwest Securities, commented. "Relying on only a few models to conquer the market is [a strategy] that is hard to succeed with in China," he remarked.

Although having been updated several times, FAW Mazda's flagship model, the Mazda6, has failed to meet changing Chinese demands. Mazda's plans for the Chinese market have been critiqued as excessively conservative when compared to its rivals.

"The [Fukushima] earthquake last year did deal a major blow to Japanese manufacturers," Mr. Liu admitted. "However, Honda, Toyota and other [Japanese] manufacturers recovered very quickly this year." He commented that, as Mazda's losses from the earthquake were relatively small, that its declining sales in China this year are due to its marketing and sales tactics.

FAW Mazda's poor performance has been a thorn in co-owner FAW Car's side, with the company finally deciding this February to invest 1.5 billion yuan ($238.39m) to bring the JV's product line up to date.

The manufacturer has plans to bring over the 2012 Mazda6, 2012 Mazda8 (pictured below), CX-5 and other models to China this year.