Dan Morris, president and CEO of Mazda Europe, believes that the MX-Crossport concept, unveiled at the North American International Auto Show, would help fill a gap in Mazda’s line-up if it went into production.
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“I see a market in Europe for the Crossport and we looking very closely at how Nissan gets on with the Murano in the region,” he said.
“While we have previously had the [rebadged Ford Escape] Tribute SUV in Europe, you could see the Ford identity in that model. Crossport clearly has the Mazda DNA and although it has been designed for the North American market, there is no decision yet on whether it will go into production – but Mazda does have a record of putting its concepts on the road.”
The most recent Mazda concept to make it into production was the MX-Flexa, unveiled at the Geneva motor show last year, and due on sale as the 5 later this year.
Sales in Europe in 2004 were up 20% year on year at 275,000. This represents a 72% increase over 2001. Morris said he would like to see Mazda’s share of the European market stabilise at 2%.
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By GlobalData“This would give us annual sales of between 350,000 and 400,000 sales year,” he said. “This is critical mass for our 2,200 European dealers. They have been very loyal to us and we are now able to replay them.”
Morris said Mazda’s success had been led by good product and the fact that it now has control of 85% of its European distribution. Since 2000 it has been taking control in major markets from independent distributors.
He added: “We can speak with one voice with a pan-European approach to advertising and to the brand. We never had that two years ago.
“The planets have been aligned, and we will continue with our Zoom Zoom campaign which has been a big success. We have invested in it, we have equity in it and it has legs.
“The philosophy of Zoom Zoom has the emotion of motion and it can last as long as Mazda can last.”
He had particular praise for the UK and Italian markets. Sales in Italy were up 68% to 24,000 and the UK was up 25% at 48,646.
The rise in Italy had been helped by the popularity of the 2 Demio in Japan], a need that the automaker has been able to meet thanks to its utilisation of Ford’s production facility in Valencia, Spain.
