The phrase ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’ might seem an unusual one to apply in the motoring industry, but it’s one that 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 years, with more than 103,000 sold here since it arrived in 2012, and the new third-generation model is due to start arriving in showrooms next month. However, it hasn’t been a seamless transition from the second-generation car, which went off sale in January – a gap which Jeremy Thomson, the brand’s UK MD, acknowledges has been significant for dealers.
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The phrase ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’ might seem an unusual one to apply in the motoring industry, but it’s one that 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 years, with more than 103,000 sold here since it arrived in 2012, and the new third-generation model is due to start arriving in showrooms next month. However, it hasn’t been a seamless transition from the second-generation car, which went off sale in January – a gap which Jeremy Thomson, the brand’s UK MD, acknowledges has been significant for dealers.
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Speaking to Automotive Management at the UK media launch of the new CX-5, Thomson said: “The dealer network have been waiting with bated breath for this car to come to market. They’ll have it in their showrooms in June, July, and obviously we’ll be selling hard particularly for September.
“It’s an important car for them. It’s historically been our bestseller. It’s got very strong brand loyalty with Mazda customers. And I think we felt the absence of the car – it almost reminds us all of the importance of it.
“I think sometimes when you run one car line right into another, it’s a sort of natural segue, whereas I think it’s the absence of this, it made the heart grow fonder. The network really are anticipating it – particularly for the retail element of their business.”
Thomson said the gap since the second-generation CX-5 went off sale was due to type approval expiring on that model – but added that the UK’s Mazda dealers had at least seen a better scenario than those in the rest of Europe.
He said: “In continental Europe, they had a year gap for their network. But because of Brexit, we follow a slightly different pattern to the EU and the UK Government has sought to diverge from the EU on matters like homologation – not significantly, but it meant that the UK was able to continue selling the CX-5 for longer.
“For that reason, we built a significant number of them in the last couple of months of production and we sold them out through the back end of last year when Europe was unable to sell any. As a result of that, our dealers have had the benefit of CX-5 for a lot longer than they might otherwise have done.”
Mazda dealers ‘excited’ by new CX-5
Thomson said that dealers who had recently had a preview of the new CX-5 in left-hand drive form were “tremendously excited” about its potential.
He explained: “From a price point of view, it’s pretty similar to the outgoing model. It’s recognisably CX-5. and yet in virtually every respect, noticeably better.
“So, it’s a very easy sell to customers who may have had two or three CX-5s back to back, but not seen an awful lot of difference between models over that time. This is quite a significant step forward – albeit with a combustion engine. But that’s in a world where four out of five retail customers are still buying combustion-engined cars.”
When asked how long the petrol mild hybrid CX-5 could continue as Mazda’s best-seller given the legislative move towards electrification, Thomson acknowledged that as legislation stands, the current powertrain would need to end in 2030. However, he said Mazda would 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 could be further electrified, for instance as a plug-in hybrid, Thomson said that he wouldn’t rule it out, but equally that no such move was currently planned.
New EVs join ‘unprecedented’ Mazda launch schedule
Mazda’s electrified portfolio is at any rate set to expand this year, with the arrival of two new full EVs – the Mazda6e upper-medium car and CX-6e SUV.
Thomson said: “Launching three all-new cars in the space of six months I think is unprecedented for the Mazda brand.
“It’s a lot of good news for the network, and I think we’ll see both growth and profit strengthening throughout the rest of this year.”
While the CX-5 is a car with big retail appeal, the pure EVs could be expected to attract 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 car is seeing some private orders come in.
He said: “The 6e is going to be a very strong fleet car. A lot of people have had a Mazda6 as their company car in the past, and now we’ve got a car that will sell strongly into the BIK-led demand that we see in fleet channels.
“But a number of dealers are already taking orders from retail customers for that car because they are interested in it from a perspective of they had a Mazda6 at some point and they see a lot of potential in this car to be their first step into electrification.”
New models tipped to lead 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 end of April, according to Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) data. Thomson is confident that the brand will quickly get back on track.
He said: “We’ll sell around 30,000 cars this year – that is the plan. But that is only six months of the CX-5, six months of the Mazda6e, and one month of the CX-6e. So, when we look at 2027, I think 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, according to Thomson, including around 60 distinct dealer operations, ranging from standalone dealers to groups such as AM100 members Stoneacre and Arnold Clark.
He said: “We see the groups wanting to grow with Mazda, and see there is a strength in numbers.
“But we’re still very, very keen on the traditional owner-driver businesses, who’ve put their heart and soul into a single brand with Mazda. And I think they’re going to see that loyalty and commitment come good in the next six months with all these new car launches.”
Thomson is expecting stability this year in terms of Mazda dealer numbers, but more scale through each of those dealerships.
He said: “There will be more volume, which will inevitably lead to greater profit, but without any requirement for further expansion.”
When asked about Mazda’s ability to withstand the impact on dealer footprint of new brands entering the UK car market, including those from China, Thomson said: “Some of our existing dealer groups are taking on some of those Chinese brands, and of course, that’s entirely fair and reasonable.
“We just need to stay true to our strengths to make sure we continue and remain differentiated from them because our very strong brand loyalty that we enjoy with our particular customer demographic, good aftersales and used car businesses. You need all of those different elements to come together to create a viable business model and I think Mazda can offer a lot in all of those areas. But number one, of course, is always going to be strong product that has high customer pull.
“It keeps us all on our game. You’ve got to remain very, very competitive. You’ve got to continue doing what we do well. And there’s no space for complacency in this market.”