Mazda targets Hilux with car-like ute

The country's leading importer stated its ambitions to challenge its dominant Japanese rivals after revealing its next-generation utility vehicle at a global media reveal ahead of today's Sydney motor show.

The Hilux, Nissan Navara and Mitsubish Triton account for more than half the 4x4 utility market, while Mazda's diesel-only BT-50 is the seventh most popular ute with a five per cent share.

Mazda, though, says the new model will take advantage of the big spike in sales of dual-cab utes that are now being bought as much for lifestyle reasons as work.

"We've developed [the new BT-50] from the ground up as a brand new type of vehicle," says Mazda Australia boss Doug Dickson. "We have made a conscious decision to make our dual-cabs like a mid-range passenger car.

"We took a decision that we would fit out our utilites in the same way we do with our Mazda6. You'll see that [the new BT-50] will be far more car-like. What you see in your cars, you'll see in the ute.

"We'll kick some goals with the new BT. We're going to significantly lift our share in one of the fastest-growing segments in the market."

Mazda is revealing few details yet for the new BT-50, which it now refers to as an "Active lifestyle vehicle". It doesn't go on sale locally until the second half of 2011, about the same time as the new Ford Ranger ute with which it shares its underpinnings and production source of Thailand.

The company, however, says the new BT is significantly longer and wider than the current, 5.2m-long model. All key interior dimensions also grow and the new BT-50's tray will provide a bigger payload.

Dickson says the new ute will have a different target customer to the current BT, which it says has an older average buyer compared to most rival models because it is more work-focused.

"With new BT, we expect the age of our customers will come down. We will target our advertising at males in the 30-49 age group and who are more likely to be small business owners and more likely to have a family. Friends and families are important and therefore they need a car that can perform as both a work horse and as a family car."

Australia's ute segment continues to see new arrivals, such as Chinese brand Great Wall Motors and, from early next year, Volkswagen – with the Amarok.

Dickson says Mazda for now is focused on the likes of the Toyota Hilux, Nissan Navara and Mitsubishi Triton.

"Some car makers are clear and present dangers [in the ute segment], and some will be threats down the track," he says.

"We tend to pay more attention to who are successful in the market right now, who have established reputations – so all of our Japanese competitors.

"The Chinese are emerging competitors, but maybe they need a couple of generations [of vehicles] and they certainly need to be here in their own right [rather than sold via an importer] if they want to learn the market in this country.

"[VW] are going to be just as much a competitor, but they still have to establish their credentials.

It's a market segment in which they haven't competed before."