Mazda announced a shift in strategy as the whole industry pulls back from earlier EV funding plans.
A few years ago, you couldn’t go five minutes without an automaker touting an “electrified future”, and pouring billions upon billions of dollars into trying to make that proclamation a reality. Now, especially in the wake of cooler-than-expected reception in North America, everyone is having a bit of a rethink. That includes Mazda, which announced a new “Lean Asset” strategy aimed at leveraging its strategic partnerships to develop future hybrid vehicles and cut costs through developing new models entirely on its own.
Overall, that’s an evermore common strategy even among larger automakers, and Mazda’s early attempts at an electric vehicle (like the MX-30) didn’t exactly win hearts, minds or sales. It’s pivoted to strategic partnerships with other companies like Toyota, Denso and BluE Nexus to see its electrification plan through, and announced Tuesday it would continue to do so while cutting its former EV plans to the tune of about $3.36 billion (or from 2 trillion yen to 1.5 trillion yen) by 2030.
The other prong of Mazda’s shift away from such heavy electric car R&D is a new “SkyActiv-Z” engine, meant to be an evolution of the existing powertrain. That’s what will debut in the next-generation CX-5 come 2027, and form the backbone of the company’s next-generation, in-house hybrid system. Unlike the current CX-50 Hybrid, which uses a Toyota-based setup shared with the RAV4 (among other models), Mazda is banking on this updated internal combustion powertrain seeing them through the rest of the decade.
That’s not to say Mazda won’t inevitably bring out new EVs, as it is cutting some funding rather than pulling back entirely. We still don’t have too many details out of CEO Masahiro Moro’s briefing this week, but Mazda is still planning its own new EV to also launch in 2027 That new model will be built in Japan “for global introduction”, with Panasonic-sourced battery cells (again, bringing in the strategic partnership discussion earlier on). The automaker also plans to use existing production lines to factor in EVs, in a mixed-flow line, rather than take on the capital investment and time sink involved in building a completely new plant, as some of its rivals are doing.
In other words, Mazda is playing it careful with what limited resources it does have, as a relatively small player in the industry at-large. Moro said of this shift in mindset, “While a large amount of investment is required for batteries, demand is highly uncertain. We will implement careful and efficient investment while monitoring technical innovation.”
Over the past several decades, the company has staked its reputation on internal combustion cars, so it’s been hesitant to quickly jump into the EV market. It seems to be continuing that approach as it pulls back EV investment, but time will tell whether it’s able to actually gain a foothold — which it failed to do with the MX-30 — if it ramps down spending and mentions a new model coming in a couple years, while rivals are developing new and existing models right now to try and court more buyers away from internal combustion. Even as some of them, too, pivot toward hybrids instead of going as hard into EVs, will it ultimately make a difference come 2027 and beyond?
We’ll keep an eye on how Mazda’s doing and report back with updates as they’re available.
