Chang'an Ford Mazda has high hopes for Mazda3

Chang'an Ford Mazda, co-formed by China's Chang'An Auto Group, US Ford Motor Co., and Japan's Mazda Motor Corp., is launching more aggressive plans to spur the sluggish Mazda sales in the Chinese market.

Chang'an Ford Mazda will set up 50 independent franchise dealers for its future models, including Mazda2 and Mazda3 starting on January 1, 2008.

Currently Mazda3 1.6L have begun to receive orders from dealers, and the model is expected to see much better sales compared with the 2.0L Mazda3, said an unnamed source from a Mazda dealer at Sichuan province. Chang'an Ford Mazda has made full preparations for the launch and may boost production if necessary, according to the source.

In the first half year of 2007, sales of the Mazda3 were only 12,227 units. Compared with the full year production target of 39,000 units for the model, the automaker still has a long way to go in the coming six months.

One of the factors accounting for the Mazda3's decline is that Chang'an Ford Mazda and FAW Mazda Motor Sales Co., Ltd., another Mazda joint venture in China, have been competing with each other to become the sole sales agency of Mazda. As a result, production of the model had been suspended for a while last year. Although production was resumed by the end of the year, it lost its price competitiveness when compared with its rivals in the same range auto market.

In addition, sales of the Mazda6 also were not pleasing. In the first half of the year, a total of 25,257 Mazda6's were sold, down 3,411 units year on year.