Over the past few weeks, we've been getting to know the 2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid. Here is the fourth and final chapter of our long-term test of the model.
See also: 2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid, Long-Term Review, Part 1: Let’s Talk!
See also: 2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid Long-Term Review, Part 2: Same, But Not
See also: 2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid Long-Term Review, Part 3: A Good Deal?
Over the past few weeks, we've established that the 2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid is a valid alternative to the RAV4, CR-V, Sportage and others. But there’s a rub: until further notice, the trade war declared on most of the rest of the world by the United States is complicating our shopping...
Recall that the non-hybrid CX-50, with either a naturally aspirated or turbo engine, went on sale in Canada in May 2022. As its production came from a brand-new plant in Huntsville, Alabama operated jointly by Mazda and Toyota, the initial quantity of vehicles assembled was based on a single work shift while operations were fine-tuned.
Until the end of 2022, Canadian sales of the Mazda CX-50 amounted to 2,365 units. For comparison, the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4 sold 6,563 and 13,621 units respectively that year... in Quebec alone!
For Mazda, there was still a long way to go, but as they say, slow and steady wins the race.
A second production shift was added in June 2023 to approach the plant's maximum capacity of 150,000 units per year. Sales of the CX-50 in Canada duly climbed, to 5,711 units that year.
Things were going so well
In 2024, with production finally hitting full stride, Canadian sales of the CX-50 doubled again, to 10,759 units.
The momentum continued into early 2025, boosted, in truth, by the arrival of the CX-50's hybrid variant in November 2024. In the first quarter, total CX-50 sales jumped by 67 percent, a rise that suggested another record year was on the way.
And then Trump and his tariffs came along to spoil the party.
On April 3, the U.S. administration imposed a 25-percent surtax on cars and parts imported from abroad. Canada's response was not long in coming, in the form of a retaliatory 25-percent tariff on vehicles imported from the U.S. deemed non-compliant with CUSMA, the Canada-United-States-Mexico Agreement of July 1, 2020 (which succeeded NAFTA).
As we've seen, the CX-50 is assembled south of the border. What to do? Reluctantly, Mazda had to suspend its exports to Canada: no new CX-50s have entered the country since this past May 12. And, at the time of writing, the tariffs are still in effect on both sides of the border.
A rare commodity
Of course, the most forward-thinking Mazda dealers had built up their inventory accordingly. But, more than four months later, those stocks are running out.
In mid-August, I contacted ALBI Mazda Mascouche, the flagship dealership of the ALBI le Géant group. Cathy Laroche, VP of Marketing and Public Relations, told me they had fewer than 10 units of the CX-50 left in the lot. We're talking about the largest Mazda dealership in Canada! The situation at other dealers is hardly likely to be better; on the contrary.
I asked Mazda Canada about the current situation across the country. “All I can say is that Mazda Canada currently has a limited inventory of CX-50s that our dealers continue to sell,” said Chuck Reimer, Manager of Product Communications for Mazda Canada.
This doesn't mean, by the way, that the MSRP of a CX-50 would simply inflate by 25 percent if Mazda continued to import it here. It's more subtle. Yes, the 25-percent customs duty applies to vehicles and parts non-compliant with CUSMA, but some parts come from outside the U.S. Thus, "the actual amount of tax applied to the CX-50 would be less than 25 percent," specified Chuck.
But regardless of the exact amount of the surtax, we can agree that dealers and the manufacturer can't just pass the surtax on to consumers as if nothing had happened. Nor does Mazda have a broad enough portfolio to spread the penalty across all its models.
Meanwhile…
This past August, Toyota Canada sold 6,351 RAV4s, of which 9 percent were plug-in hybrids (PHEVs). Since the manufacturer sold a total of 19,346 vehicles during that same month, it means the RAV4 alone accounted for nearly 33 percent of Toyota's sales in Canada in August. In fact, since the beginning of the year, the compact SUV has made up 37 percent of Toyota's sales here. More than a third! That's huge!
It also means that Mazda is absolutely right to try to carve out a nice slice of the pie: people want to drive practical SUVs.
Indeed, for the first eight months of 2025, Mazda sold 7,343 CX-50s across the country versus 6,771 during the same period last year. The year 2025 should have ended with a new sales record, but the chances of selling more CX-50s than in 2024 are now slim to none, given that that the tariff remains in effect.
Sure enough, in August, Mazda sold only 423 CX-50s compared to 1,048 in August 2024. A drop of 60 percent. Thanks, President Trump!
"This year we were on pace to sell at least 15,000 CX-50s until the tariff situation suspended our imports into Canada. Up to May of this year, CX-50 was 17 percent of our sales in Canada. In 2024: 15 percent. In 2023: just under 10 percent. Clearly, the CX-50 was a rising star in our lineup until it was sidelined by the trade war," says Chuck Reimer.
One last relevant statistic: between November 2024, the launch month of the CX-50 Hybrid, and May 12, 2025, when imports stopped, the hybrid model represented 28 percent of all CX-50 sales in Canada.
Let's hope for the best
Let me summarize the situation for you: during the weeks I drove the CX-50 Hybrid, I was a lucky driver. The handling, the 6.0L/100 km fuel consumption, the luster of the paint and the quality of the interior finish won me over.
If the weeks had turned into years, I would have programmed a maximum of functions or mastered the art of voice commands—anything to reduce the need to juggle the annoying infotainment system dial. As for the smaller cargo space compared to the competition, it didn't stop me from cleaning out a nursery. In short, when my family and friends sat in the CX-50 Hybrid, I was proud. I would have liked to be able to tell them, “Yep, this is my ride!”
For Mazda, its dealers, and us, the consumers, we must now hope that the negotiating team led by Dominique LeBlanc, minister in charge of the Canada-U.S. trade file for Prime Minister Mark Carney, will eventually make their Yankee counterparts see reason. And the sooner the better.