Mazda Motor Corp. is wrapping up a banner year in an overall sluggish auto market, and its US sales chief expects that momentum to extend into 2025—even without a fully electric vehicle in its line-up. Buoyed by demand for its gas-powered compact crossovers and mid-size SUVs, the Japanese company is on track to deliver more than 420,000 vehicles in 2024, a 16-percent rise, said Tom Donnelly, president of Mazda’s North American operations, breaking a record set in 1986.
It aims to sell 450,000 vehicles in 2025, he said. “We’re growing our business in what has largely been a stable industry” in terms of volume, he said in an interview, crediting the popularity of Mazda’s mainstay compacts and the inroads made by its mid-sized SUVs. Overall new car sales in the United States are set to grow 2.
3 percent in 2024 to about 15.9 million vehicles, Cox Automotive’s Kelley Blue Book has projected. Mazda’s US volume tops luxury brands such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz, but still well below peers like Subaru, Kia and Nissan.
This year’s surge marks a major turn-around since 2019 when sales hit a six-year low of 278,552 vehicles. Mazda has tiptoed into the hot market for gas-electrics with three models: a standard hybrid version of the CX-50 compact crossover and plug-in variants of its CX-70 and CX-90 SUVs. The CX-50 hybrid uses technology from strategic partner Toyota Motor Corp.
and all three have received mixed reviews. Donnelly said Mazda plans to develop a new in-house .
