Don’t look now, but Mazda is quietly kicking ass in the United States. According to Automotive News, Mazda was on track to deliver more than 420,000 cars in 2024. Not only would that be a 16% increase from 2023, but it also breaks Mazda’s North American Operations record from 1986. And the company managed this, primarily, with old-fashioned gas-powered cars.
Through November 1, 2024, Mazda sold 350,759 vehicles, almost all of which were crossovers. While its best seller was still the aging CX-5, those sales actually decreased 7.8% from 2023. However, CX-50 sales rose 88.9%, and CX-90 sales closely followed with an 86.9% increase, in that model’s first full year on the market. Even the Mazda 3 saw a respectable boost of about 24% through most of 2024, covering both sedan and hatchback variants, at a time when other brands are dropping their compact cars in favor of SUVs. Most importantly, though, Mazda’s numbers increased without much help from electrified cars.
Mazda only has three electrified vehicles on sale in the U.S. right now: the CX-90 plug-in hybrid, the CX-70 plug-in hybrid, and the CX-50 hybrid. Only the CX-90 hybrid was on sale throughout the entirety of 2024; the CX-70 and CX-50 hybrids came out later in the year. While Mazda doesn’t split its sales figures between gas and hybrid models, it seems safe to say that the majority of the vehicles it shifted were purely gas-burning ones.
Although Mazda’s current mix of pure-ICE and electrified models appears to be serving it well, it’s not resting on its laurels. Currently, Mazda makes its own plug-in hybrid systems for the CX-90 and CX-70, while the CX-50 borrows the Toyota RAV4 hybrid’s powertrain. The automaker is planning on developing a new system for future plug-in hybrid models, and there’s even a rotary-powered hybrid sports car in the works. Just don’t expect too many pure battery-electric Mazdas anytime soon.
“BEV penetration is at 10 percent right now and, given recent events, not likely to accelerate much beyond that,” said Tom Donnelly, president of Mazda North American Operations. “We’re not a brand that is out there making a bold proclamation about 100 percent by any particular time frame.”
Fortunately, Mazda doesn’t need to rush. It seems to be doing just fine selling gas-powered crossovers, and that success will buy it time to hone its electrification efforts for the future.
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