Mazda is to pull out of development and production of commercial vehicles in the face of dwindling demand in Japan according to a report in Japanese business daily Nikkei.
Development will end with current models and production will be halted in the second half of the decade when collision safety standards are tightened, the newspaper reported.
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The decision to stop building one-box-style vans and Bongo small cab-over trucks means that Mazda will no longer develop or manufacture any of the commercial vehicles it sells. It currently procures trucks from Isuzu, commercial vans from Nissan and commercial minivehicles from Suzuki.
The Bongo was launched in 1966 and pioneered one-box-style commercial vehicles. It proved a hit in such industries as transportation and construction and despite cumulative output of around 3m units, demand has been sluggish recently as the Japanese market for commercial vehicles has stagnated while competition has intensified. Production has fallen to around 20,000 units a year.
A next-generation Bongo was under consideration by Mazda but, with no prospect of supplying the vehicle to other firms under an OEM agreement, the company decided that it would not be able to recoup development costs said the Nikkei.
