Mazda Explains Why It Thinks the New CX-5 and CX-50 Can Coexist
The company believes the compact-SUV segment is wide enough for two similarly sized Mazdas, and sales numbers back up that assertion.
When Mazda introduced the CX-50 in 2023, there was some expectation that it would replace the CX-5 completely in the North American market. It was slightly larger and styled more towards American tastes for chunky little off-roaders, and it offered a more modern interior. Folks were surprised when Mazda chose to continue offering both compact SUVs, but execs said then that there were different buyers for the CX-5 and the CX-50, and there was no reason not to keep both available. “CX-5 leans towards the urban driving customer,” Mazda’s CEO Masahiro Moro told Car and Driver earlier this year during a visit to the company’s headquarters in Hiroshima. “CX-50 is more outdoors, buyers looking for a taste of adventure.”
We could follow that logic, especially since the CX-50 offered some things the CX-5 didn’t, like more room and a hybrid option. Now that the CX-5 is coming out with its third generation, featuring a larger footprint that brings it even closer in size to the CX-50 and a new hybrid option coming in 2027, we asked again if there were any concerns at Mazda about having two such similar offerings. Stefan Meisterfeld, vice president of strategic planning at Mazda North American Operations (MNAO), says Mazda is still not worried. Meisterfeld repeats Moro’s points about styling differences, giving CX-5 a more upright city-cruising elegance, while CX-50 will continue to lean towards a more hiking and camping–oriented crowd.
Meisterfeld’s biggest argument in favor of keeping both models is the popularity of the compact-SUV segment worldwide, but especially in North America. In 2024, Mazda sold 134,088 CX-5s and 81,441 CX-50s. So far this year, CX-5 sales are maintaining that same pace, while CX-50 sales are growing, so clearly the CX-50 isn’t stealing its sister’s lunch money. Through June 2025, Mazda recorded 70,260 CX-5 sales and 46,914 CX-50 sales. Put together, that’s more than 50 percent of all Mazda sales in the U.S., and that’s with the current CX-5 being an aging model that hasn’t been refreshed since 2022. The updated CX-5 will likely bump up customer interest.
Mazda may still have a ways to go to catch up to its competitors, as Honda sold 212,561 CR-Vs and Toyota sold 239,451 RAV4s through the first half of this year, but it’s clear that Meisterfeld is correct that there is room for many models in the segment.
“We believe you can make a sub-segmentation of different customers with different preferences,” he says. “So the CX-5, as you know, is designed more for this urban, sophisticated audience, and the CX-50 is more for the adventurous, maybe more rugged. We see that also from our customer traffic, that there is a difference in these customers with a clear preference for one or the other.” He agrees that there may be some customers who are undecided between rugged and sophisticated, but feels that as long as they drive away from the dealership in one or the other, everyone wins.
Another reason why Mazda is keeping the CX-5 around is that the U.S. is not the company’s only market. The CX-5 is a global bestseller for Mazda, so it’s not such a risk to offer it alongside the more market-specific CX-50 in the States. Mazda hasn’t announced 2026 CX-5 pricing yet, but says changing tariffs shouldn’t affect things dramatically, which would keep it around the same cost as the CX-50. Still, it’s worth noting that the CX-50 is built in a U.S. facility, which might be reason enough to keep it as an option alongside the imported CX-5, which is built in Japan.
