In good news for anyone in the market for a new ute, Mazda is about to seriously ramp up supply of its BT-50 before the end of the year.
The Thai-built, Isuzu D-Max-based ute has been seriously supply constrained this year, with Mazda Australia struggling to fill orders because of the global parts shortages and supply chain issues.
But it looks like those issues have been resolved, at least for the BT-50, allowing Mazda to increase its volume in the coming months.
Speaking with CarsGuide at a BT-50 drive event recently, Mazda Australia marketing director Alastair Doak said the company had only averaged about 800 units a month this year, but as of November, that would change significantly.
“We’ll be kind of doubling the supply number over the next few months and into next year, which is great,” he said. “So we’ve certainly been talking to our dealers saying ‘great news, the supply is freeing up, you can talk to existing customers, but also you know, you can get back on the front foot.’”
Mr Doak noted the fact that 2021 was a record year for BT-50 sales, following the current-gen model’s late 2020 launch. He said this year’s supply issues have been frustrating for the Japanese brand.
“Last year, we had a record year for BT-50. And if we had free supply, we would have easily surpassed that this year. So that was very frustrating. So we finally got this kind of momentum with the new model, and we’re up and running and then we’ve got the supply issues. But you know, we’ve still been taking orders through that period. And so we’re looking forward to having a bit of a bit of a run at it again, which would be nice”
In 2021, Mazda sold a total of 15,662 BT-50s (combined 4×2 and 4×4 sales), which was enough to make it the fifth best-selling ute in Australia, outselling the Nissan Navara by about 550 units.
So far this year, Mazda has sold just over 10,000 utes, which is about 19 per cent less than in the first 10 months of 2021. It is still leading the Navara, which is also supply-constrained, but well behind the dominant Toyota HiLux and Ford Ranger, as well as the Mitsubishi Triton and its D-Max twin.
The BT-50 range is currently topped by the Thunder flagship variant that starts at $68,290 before on-road costs.
While it is the most rugged BT-50, there’s still no direct rival for a Ranger Raptor or Navara Pro-4X Warrior.
When asked if there is an opportunity for a more hardcore BT-50 variant, Mr Doak said Mazda is “constantly looking for opportunities to do more with BT-50”, and that dealers and Mazda Australia employees are also pushing for something like this. But keen off-roaders shouldn’t get their hopes up just yet.
“We’re constantly talking about it, thinking about it. These things are complicated. So is there anything I can say is coming very soon? No, there isn’t. But we’ll continue to look at the opportunity.”
Keyword: 2023 Mazda BT-50 stock injection incoming if you are too impatient to wait for a Ford Ranger or new Volkswagen Amarok