Is there room in Mazda’s European line-up for a second SUV? Speaking at the launch over here of the first, the CX-7, the Japanese firm’s top executives were happy to ponder the issue.
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The car in question would be the larger CX-9, visually similar to its smaller sibling but capable of seating seven and already on sale in the USA and reportedly also heading for Australia.
Phil Waring, vice-president of sales for Mazda Motor Europe, said part of the problem in making such a decision was lack of clarity on where the CO2 debate was heading.
He said: “Once we know the answer to that we can decide what to do. The body of opinion is that the CX-9 is too big for western Europe. If I had to cast my stone in the water today I would ask for it in Russia and Ukraine, and say no thanks for Western Europe.”
Waring said he would have to commit to selling a certain number of CX-9s to offset the engineering costs. He said he was unlikely to do that when there was still uncertainly over the CO2 issue.
The company is also constrained by production issues; its factories can currently build 1.3m cars a year and they’re all running at full capacity.
“Given the choice, I wouldn’t take CX-9. I would choose more B-car production [the soon-to-be-launched redesigned Mazda 2] for western Europe because I can sell more of those,” said Waring.
But he added: “But my view isn’t necessarily the one that makes the decision.”
The CX-7 will initially be available in Europe only with a 2.3-litre turbocharged petrol engine and six-speed manual transmission to, Mazda said, fill a niche of “an SUV with sports car ability.”
Waring said: “The emphasis is on performance but we will look at the development of this market segment to see if there is a demand for diesel. Currently we have just planned for petrol engines.” [Mazda has since announced it will add 2.2-litre diesel versions with 18 months – ed]
Can an SUV be a sports car as well? “I thing the CX-7 proves that it can,” he added. “The job for the marketing team is to make sure people are aware of its capabilities. It has all the attributes of an all-wheel-drive SUV as well as the performance and handling of a sports car.”
