Here’s a fun one to consider as we start the new year: Mazda doesn’t sell a single Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) in the United States and, yet, it massively outgrew every other major automaker and is on its way to setting a sales record. How did Mazda do this?
The Morning Dump this week is likely to be dominated by sales data because we’re going to start learning how every automaker ultimately did. If you read this column regularly then you know there’s a lot I’m personally watching, including how the Honda Prologue stacks up against the Equinox EV, how close we get to 16 million car sales for 2024, and how fears about the IRA EV tax credit going away are impacting EV sales.
Right off the bat, we learned how Tesla did this year against BYD, barely keeping its crown. I’m curious if this means Tesla is going to lose it in 2025. Markets like Norway certainly help Tesla, and this year only a tiny number of cars will be powered by the traditional gasoline engine.
Selling cars is, it seems, a good business, and one New England dealer has done well enough that he’s giving away $100 million for a new center to help find a cure for cancer.
Car Buyers Think They Know What They Want
I invite you to watch a Richmond-area Mazda dealer’s advertisement, which deploys a Sia song called “Unstoppable,” though it removes the line about being a “Porsche with no brakes.”
The campaign is called “Move and Be Moved” and it’s what Mazda’s North American President Tom Donnelly credits with Mazda’s success this year.
I touched on this last month, but Mazda grew a lot in 2024 and has already set a record for its best year ever. You can see in this chart from Cox Automotive that the automaker’s projected 16.3% increase in annual sales is far outpacing the market, and if it weren’t a smaller brand, it would have had the biggest market share increase (that went to Honda, which sells more than 3x the number of vehicles Mazda does).
“Mazda is a brand that takes you places and moves you forward, and visually the tone, the language of the campaign, is very different from anything in the marketplace,” Donnelly told Automotive News earlier this year.
That sounds like a lot of marketing nonsense-speak, and these ads are definitely of the models doing lifestyle things while a voiceover tries to make you feel like the only difference between the you that runs across mountains and the one that starts a TikTok channel devoted to new Takis flavors is a CX-30 variety. Still, this works for a couple of reasons.
“The problem we’re trying to solve is, from our research, 89% of car shoppers know the brand they want to purchase, and 79% end up purchasing that brand,” said Donnelly in the same interview.
Mazda doesn’t have a luxury brand, so the company is trying to move itself in a slightly more premium space. It also has one other big trick up its sleeve.
“Our aspiration is we want to offer competitive incentives, so that we can transact and continue to grow our business, but we also want to price our vehicles appropriately.” He admitted they were very competitive with incentive spend in the first year, though Donnelly said they’ve moderated incentives and spent more on marketing.
How is it possible that Nissan is struggling, Honda thinks it needs Nissan, and yet Mazda is doing so well and doesn’t have any electric cars for sale, two PHEVs, and a hybrid borrowed from Toyota?
There are some obvious factors. The cars and crossovers all look great. There isn’t a bad-looking Mazda for sale. Additionally, they aren’t always the best vehicle in any specific category, but unlike Nissan none of them are the worst. Mazda has just continued to make attractive, competitively priced, well-engineered vehicles, and hasn’t been as distracted by having to market an uncompetitive EV (which is maybe why the company’s one attempt in the USA was so weird).
Donnelly, though, gave it away earlier. Mazda has moved some of its vehicles up a little in the marketplace and has adjusted some of its pricing upwards, but it’s also countered that with a lot of incentives to start the year. It then spent a lot of money trying to incept the idea of “choosing” a Mazda in the minds of a lot of people.
It can do this because it’s a Japanese company and the Japanese Yen has (mostly) remained down relative to the USD, which is good for people importing cars from Japan and also great for export-heavy Japanese companies. Toyota and Honda all saw record profits during this period, but those companies are still heavily tilted towards production in the United States. Mazda’s CX-5 and Miata are both made in Japan and the CX-30 is made in Mexico. Even the CX-50, which is made here, is produced at Toyota’s plant in Alabama.
For now, Mazda benefits from selling cars in $ while building them in ¥ or MEX$. Seeing weakness in the market, Mazda smartly invested a lot of that surplus into improving its brand recognition and status while companies like Nissan and Jeep faltered.
In a new tariff regime under President Trump this might get a little tougher.
Is 2025 The Year That Tesla Loses Its EV Crown?
The big news of the morning was that Tesla, in spite of shrinking this year, just barely stayed ahead of BYD for the important title of “biggest EV car company in the world.” Because it also sells a variety of hybrids, BYD sold way more cars than Tesla, it just happened to sell about 25,000 fewer EVs.
That’s quite close. BYD has outsold Tesla on a quarter-by-quarter basis before, including in Q4 where it sold 595,413 EVs to Tesla’s 495,570 according to Electrek.
Obviously, if you only extrapolate out Q4 sales then you’d assume that 2025 is the year Tesla loses out to BYD. Maybe that’s the case. Musk seems more focused on the Cybercab and AI than he’s been on selling cars.
The big question, I think, revolves around incentives. In the United States, we know that the answer is uncertain. China, though, has made it clear it will likely to continue some form of support for buyers, not to mention the many automaker-led incentives that are coming.
China has signaled plans to extend incentives for consumer to trade in older cars and light trucks in 2025, but specifics of the nationwide program remain unclear.
Nanjing, the capital city of eastern China’s Jiangsu province, said this week it would continue to provide subsidies of up to 4,000 yuan per car purchase this year.
Chinese authorities have agreed to issue 3 trillion yuan worth of special treasury bonds this year, Reuters has reported, as Beijing ramps up fiscal stimulus to revive a faltering economy partly via subsidy programs.
Tesla obviously builds and sells cars in China as well, but BYD has no exposure to weakness in the United States and little to sales slumps elsewhere. If Chinese EV sales remain hot and every other market cools, that’s net better for BYD, though BYD would obviously love to sell cars elsewhere.
Less Than 1% Of New Cars Sold In Norway In 2024 Were Gasoline-Powered
The Norwegian plan to switch to electric cars continues to work, with the country’s 2024 data showing that approximately 9-in-10 new cars sold were BEVs. In second, were regular hybrids, followed by plug-in hybrids, diesel, and a tiny sliver of gas-powered cars.
Data above is from Europe’s car industry group through November, but the pattern seems to have held through the year.
What makes Norway special? Well, for one, it’s trying to go full zero-emission in 2025 and will come close enough to doing it to call it a success. It achieved this through a mix of incentives (lower import tariffs, special parking, et cetera) and the abundance of cheap hydro-electric power.
From CNBC:
Gas pumps and parking meters are being replaced by chargers. It’s an electric utopia of the future. Norway’s grid has been able to handle the influx of EVs so far because of its abundance of hydropower.
“Electric cars are maybe a third of the price of gasoline because we have close to 100% hydropower. It’s cheap. It’s available and renewable. So that’s a big advantage,” said Petter Haugneland, the assistant secretary general of the Norwegian EV Association.
Tesla is, by far, the most popular vehicle in Norway, but Chinese companies are eyeing the market and it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see one sneak into the Top 10 in 2025.
If fewer than 1% of cars are gasoline-powered, this means that Ferraris and 911s have to make up a hilariously large % of gas-powered car sales. It’s also worth mentioning that the commitment to EVs has been consistent since the 1990s, which makes it easier for consumers and companies to make long-term commitments to electric cars.
Dealer Gives $100 Million For Cancer Center
Here’s a nice, positive note to end the morning on. Herb Chambers, who owns the biggest car dealership group in New England, just announced a $100 million donation to help Mass. General Hospital in Boston build a giant cancer center.
“Financially, I’ve done well,” Chambers, 83, told the Boston Globe. “I owe so much to Massachusetts, to the people that are my customers here. They’ve given me whatever I have. … I want to give back for what I’ve received.”
The donation amounts to roughly $7,000 for every day since Chambers bought his first dealership in 1985. The Herb Chambers Cos. is No. 28 on Automotive News’ 2024 list of the largest U.S. dealership groups, selling 25,863 new vehicles from 47 locations.
Chambers said he wants the facility to be a “beacon of hope for everyone touched by this awful disease” and that there can never be enough money put into finding a cure.
What I’m Listening To This Morning
Feels like an Interpol morning, don’t it? I hear this band is “All the rage back home.”
The Big Question
Would you consider a Mazda for your next new car? What are your vibes about the brand?
My parents traded in their 2020 Passat for a 2025 CX-50 this past Black Friday. They would have absolutely bought a fourth Passat if VW still made it, but alas.
I was surprised they ended up with the CX-50 because their #1 priority was good fuel economy. Vehicles on the short list included the Accord Hybrid, Tucson Hybrid, Santa Fe hybrid, CX-50 Hybrid, and the Tiguan.
The cars in the above list were crossed out for some reason or another, but the CX-50 Hybrid just fit the bill. Good size, nice interior, strangely sexy sheetmetal… but my parents walked away with a non-hybrid. They were able to get 10% off the MSRP plus 0% financing. The hybrid would have been 3.9% with no money off MSRP. Considering my parents only keep their car for 4-ish years, they would have never come out ahead in gas savings.
All this is to say I’m a big fan of their recent purchase and of the Mazda brand in general and would happily purchase pretty much any of their vehicles if I were in the market and could afford them.
our family hauler: 2011 CX-9, bought in 2014 with 80k km on it. we are at 220k km right now.
except for the transfer case that i got replaced under warranty and couple of bearings at around 180k km (20″ rims on it) and tie rods it has been exceptionally good. built quality is great (made in Japan), not a spec of rust…. also somehow did about 130k km on my front brakes and still had pads at about 30% alive. replaced anyway because everything was off already.
i think our next family hauler will be either last year CX-9 Signature or CX-90.
Still driving my 2015 Mazda 3 with 173k miles on in. Looking in a few years to upgrade to the CX-30 as I’m sick of being blinded by taller vehicles.
I had a Mazda3 then a Miata RF. Both were fantastic (although the Miata did make some of my outdoor pursuits a little more challenging). Once finances allow, I’ll have a Miata in the garage again to go with my Bronco.
There is no objectively bad or even middling car in the Mazda lineup. I don’t know any other manufacturer that can say that. Honda might be the closest.
Love to hear Mazda’s success. Their move “upmarket” worried me, but it seems to be paying off so far.
I’m a longtime Mazda fanboy and with my wife, we have owned four. A 2008 Mazda3 that I drove all through college (and after) from 2009 to 2015. I still have my 2016 Mazda6 that I bought new in October 2015 to prepare for my wife and I having kids. The 3 was still going well but wasn’t as conducive to bulky, modern-day infant car seats.
We got my wife a 2013 CX-5 FWD new in December 2012 and it was pretty much flawless for the 70k+ miles we had it. Replaced it with a higher trim-level 2016 CX-5 AWD a couple of years ago and my friend now owns it. It’s doing well with over 100k miles, too. Never any issues.
My next car, once I am comfortable replacing the 6, will be a CX-50 or a CX-50 Hybrid. But, my 6 only has just shy of 88,000 miles and is paid off, so it ain’t going anywhere anytime soon.
I really like Mazda and I am looking to buy a Mazda 6 wagon for my next car,whenever that may be. They have really done some good work the last decade.
I’ve had three Mazdas and loved them.
Sadly they don’t make RX7s any more.
I hate convertibles, so while I’ve had an MX5 (with a hard top) I won’t be buying a new one while there are still GT/GR86s available. Plus the ND coupe thing has fake rear side windows that I can’t un-see.
We have a ’21 Mazda CX5 that ended up in the family simply because my local Ford dealer threw every screw job shenanigan in the book at me when I tried to buy a car from them. I suppose I should thank them now. I never considered a Mazda before and only bought it because it was a) available during pandemic and b) no added dealer mark-up. After owning one by accident, the next one will be on purpose.
I just… I mean, really! Won’t anybody listen to that farmboy, Jack? We should not be building medical centers for giants. All they do is grind our bones to make their bread, but you wanna cure their cancer? How about no? Does no work for you??
I just bought a 2017 CX-5 with 44k miles. It’s better than a RAV4, and without the “Toyota tax”
My wife’s car is a ten year old CX-5 with 135K miles on it, and even as old as it is, it is still a very good and reliable car. When the time comes for a replacement, you better believe we’re probably going to look at Mazda first.
Mazda’s are pretty expensive in Aus now… Its $95k for a CX70 we’d buy, top spec I’d admit (never ever not having vented seats in a daily driver again…) That is an insane amount of money, which basically removes them from the list. Hyundai/Kia/ even Nissan are better value. The only bonus is the Mazda has the straight 6, but that ain’t worth $15-20k.
I’ve been eyeing the CX-50 hybrid with the RAV4’s borrowed powertrain as a next car, but still have to wait 1-2 years till they are available used.
Same here.
I would absolutely buy a Mazda if they made an EV. I have a Mach E right now and love it so much I never want to go back to gas. Knowing how small Mazda is, I wonder if they’ll ever have a competitive EV. What I’d give for that styling
I appreciate you not calling it a Mustang,which it is not. I had one as a rental once,it was was nice to drive,but all the electronic crap was a bit to much and I found the exterior door opening things a bit annoying. Decent enough for a electric car though.
I got a Mazda 3 sedan as a rental recently, it was the best modern car I’ve driven in a long time. Particularly noteworthy are the seats which were supremely soft and comfortable, like seats from a mid 00s Volvo. I usually hate infotainment systems, but the Mazda one was great, it used real controls on the center console instead of a touch screen, making it easy to interact with and it wasn’t needlessly complex. The important controls in the car had their own dedicated buttons like heated seats and HVAC. It drove nice, and had decent power for a rental car. I’d definitely consider one, particularly since I believe they still offer it with a stick.
You can get a FWD one with a stick! AWD is auto-only. As a turbo owner, it absolutely needs AWD to get the power down, but the NA engine with a manual is still great. I’ve driven both.
I don’t know where you live, but there are screaming good deals on them here in Houston. Sub 10k-mile cars for 10-12k under sticker. If you’re looking at buying one, it might be cheaper to buy one here and have it shipped to you or something like that. A friend of mine flew in to buy one and drove it back home.
I tried to get one of my family members to get one of those as I think they are great,but it was a bit too low to the ground for an older person I guess. She ended up with a BMW 2 series hybrid,which also has been quite good.
I almost bought a Mazda a few months ago. The finance guy was fucking around so I walked and he found out. The plan was going to be to try the other dealership, but I stumbled into a smoking deal on a non-Mazda that I couldn’t pass up. I’ll be shopping Mazdas again for the next car though, they kinda rule!
I own two and want more Mazdas.
Nope.
I feel that Toyota make a better everything (except the Miata) than Mazda. So why would I bother with Mazda?
As a Mazda owner and investor – love it.
Wanted a CX-5 in 2017 but it was too underpowered for me. Back in the market again in 2021 and the Carbon Turbo was made available, which I bought. Absolutely love it. Purchasing experience was not great but Mazda corporate did as much as they could to offset the crappy dealer.
Was in the market for a summer fun car and, of course, Miata Is Always The Answer. Bought a 2009 NC Miata this past summer and obviously it’s been a very enjoyable addition to my life. What a fantastic car!
Would I buy Mazda again? 100% absolutely. I’ve recommended it to several friends and family members who are very happy with their Mazdas. The CX-50 Turbo is on my short list to replace the CX-5 in a couple of years.
I still regret that our garage wasn’t long enough to fit a Mazda6 – that thing was the last real Jaguar as far as looks go. I test drove the CX50 and CX5 a few months ago and just didn’t warm up to either of them.
Wife is getting close to needing a new car, and I tried to get her to join the Cult of Minivan. Didn’t work. She wants another cx9 or a cx90. I can’t complain, I’m a mazda man myself. I drive a Toyota Yaris
same here. own cx-9 for 10 years now and it never seizes to impress how much shit fits in it
I would love a Mazda but they are always too small and cramped inside for my tastes/family.
EDIT: Also, there are no Mazda dealers anywhere near me.
“Would you consider a Mazda for your next new car? “
I have considered Mazdas in the past and actually owned some Mazda-adjacent vehicles such as a Ford Festiva (which was a Mazda 121-based design) and some Ford Escorts in the 1990s (based on the Mazda 323/Familia/Protege).
For the future, the Mazda I would be most interested in would be a Mazda 3 hatchback with either a plug-in gas-electric hybrid powertrain or a full electric powertrain with at least 250mles/400km of range.
Mazda doesn’t sell a version of the 3 like that yet in Canada
They do have a plug-in hybrid powertrain… but only offer it in the CX-60 and CX-90 so far.
I would also consider a manual MX-5 for a 2nd fun/weekend car. But that’s not happening any time soon.
So I would consider a Mazda… but if I was in the market right now, it would be very unlikely that I would buy one.