Mazda says it doesn’t need to build cars in Europe, despite the fact that its sales in the region are rising. The Japanese carmaker is more inclined towards having a large factory that can outweigh the benefits of local production, Mazda Europe CEO Jeff Guyton told Autonews Europe.
“Our intention is to have manufacturing scale. That gives you scale economy and quality through repeatability,” the executive said. Mazda currently imports all the models it sells in Europe from Japan. According to Guyton, Mazda is unlikely to reach a European sales level that would justify building a factory in the region.
Mazda would need to sell about 200,000 units of a single model to justify a European plant. “In our best year we sold 320,000 cars in our whole range. Maybe if I double our record someday, it would begin to make efficient sense, but at the moment it doesn’t make sense,” Guyton told the publication.
Mazda sold 74,419 vehicles in the first half of this year in the EU and EFTA countries, accounting for an increase of 5.4 percent. Sales were boosted by models such as the CX-5 crossover and new Mazda6. The carmaker’s market share rose to 1.2 percent from 1 percent, according to industry association ACEA.
Mazda will launch the new Mazda3 compact hatchback and sedan in Europe at the end of the year. The Mazda3 will be the third vehicle to feature the SkyActiv technology after the CX-5 and Mazda6.
By Dan Mihalascu
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