Mazda welcomes competition from 2025 Kia Tasman ute

Mazda Australia’s number two market position might come under threat as Kia readies its Tasman ute for 2025, but the brand is not perturbed by the potential shake-up.

Speaking to Drive recently at the launch of the updated MX-5, Mazda Australia's head of marketing Alastair Doak said “new competition” is “always welcome”, but the focus will be running its own race with the BT-50.

“We always welcome new competition from anybody, and there’s other utes from other brands coming that have never played in that space before either,” he said.

“We just need to do our thing with BT[-50]. We have never been a company that’s chased number two, or number one in that segment, or number this or number that.

“We have a business plan, and we want to get to our number one.”

Last year, the BT-50 accounted for 17,526 sales out of Mazda’s 100,008 total for Australia, enough to be the brand’s second-best performer behind the evergreen CX-5 SUV (23,083 sales).

Kia on the other hand, finished the year with a tally of 76,120 sales, putting it in fourth place behind the market-leading Toyota (215,240), Mazda, and Ford (87,800).

However, as part of Kia Australia’s business case for the Tasman, an annual 20,000-vehicle sales target has been suggested, which could swell its yearly sales figure to within striking distance of Mazda.

It is expected the Tasman will also conquest sales from other models, including BT-50, as Kia readies to take a bite out of the growing light-commercial space dominated by the Toyota HiLux and Ford Ranger.

And if the Tasman pushes Kia’s cumulative total above Mazda’s?

“Ultimately, if we are number two, or number three, or number four, or number five, it doesn’t really matter to us as long as we are giving our customer base what they want, the model range that they are asking for, and working with our dealers to make sure that we have a healthy business in Australia,” Mr Doak said.

“That’s our focus, it always has been, and nothing will change on that.”

Regardless of outright business targets, Mazda still has some time to shore up its defences. The Tasman is not expected in market until mid-2025 at the earliest, and its first full year in showrooms not until the end of 2026.

Until then, it is expected that a facelifted version of the BT-50 will surface, mirroring the upgrades already shown on its Isuzu D-Max twin-under-the-skin, but when that will arrive in Australia is unclear.

What is clear though is Mazda Australia’s commitment to BT-50, despite being discontinued in other right-hand-drive markets like New Zealand and South Africa.

When asked if the BT-50 is in danger of being axed, Mr Doak said: “Absolutely not.”

“Australia is the lead market, globally, for BT-50, so anything that BT-50 gets, is for us, essentially,” he said.

“We will continue to evolve and update that vehicle as it goes along, and there’s a natural cycle of any model, so stay tuned. There’s lots of life in BT[-50], and our sales have steadily increased over the last few years.”

In sales data to the end of April this year, BT-50 sales have reached 5081 deliveries, placing it behind the Ford Ranger (21,330), Toyota HiLux (17,183), Isuzu D-max (10,327), and Mitsubishi Triton (6161), but ahead of the Nissan Navara (3667), GMW Ute (2830), LDV T60 Max (2155), and SsangYong Musso (1096).