Mazda CX-8 future in Australia secure, despite omission from future model plan

Mazda Australia has confirmed its three-row CX-8 SUV will live on in Australia, despite the nameplate’s conspicuous absence from future product plans shared by its Japanese parent company.

In plans for its future SUV model range shown during Mazda’s most recent investor presentation, the two-row CX-60 and three-row CX-80 were listed alongside the current CX-5 as the brand’s “mid-size SUV” offerings in Japan – with no mention of today’s CX-8.

However, Mazda Australia maintains the CX-8 will stay on sale in Australia, with a spokesperson assuring Drive there are “no plans to discontinue it here in Australia”, and that “it will “continue to live alongside” the new CX-60, the only one of Mazda’s four new rear- or all-wheel-drive SUVs confirmed for Australia thus far.

MORE: Mazda to launch four new SUVs by 2024, Australia included

Although Mazda has confirmed the CX-8 will continue, it has not specified a timeline for how long it will live on for, given the product plan implies it will be discontinued in Japan by the end of 2023, once all four of Mazda’s new ‘Large platform’ SUVs have launched globally.

While the CX-8 is sold in China, Japan and across South-East Asia, the Hiroshima, Japan plant that builds Australian-delivered models is only responsible for servicing a handful of markets – meaning that once the CX-8 is discontinued in Japan (one of its biggest markets), it will likely be unsustainable to continue production for Australia, New Zealand and other low-volume markets.

The CX-8’s indirect replacement, the CX-80 – as both vehicles are ‘narrow-body’, three-row, medium to large SUVs – is officially “under consideration” for Australia, however it is yet to be locked in for local sale.

A similar situation applies to the larger CX-9, which will soon be discontinued in its main market, North America, to make way for the CX-90 – though Mazda Australia says it is “too early to speculate” on the seven- and eight-seater’s future Down Under (click here for more details).

For full details on Mazda’s new SUV rollout, click here to read the full story.

Across the first 10 months of 2021, 5300 examples of the Mazda CX-8 have been reported as sold in Australia – just behind the 5696 of its larger CX-9 range-mate. 

In prior years, the gap between the models on the sales charts has been far greater, with 3738 CX-8s sold in 2020 (compared to 6747 CX-9s), and 2551 in 2019 (compared to 7168 of the larger model).