• Mazda is weighing bringing a pickup truck back to the North American market.
Mazda hasn’t offered a pickup truck in North America for over 15 years. In the 2000s, the company offered a mildly retouched version of the Ford Ranger, that it called the B-Series.
With winds blowing favourably on that segment right now, with automakers doing good business with their midsize pickup trucks, Mazda wants in on the action. Mazda boss Masahiro Moro recently said as much to Car and Driver.
Now, Mazda doesn’t currently have a platform designed for this type of vehicle, so it wouldn’t be a simple thing to do. In fact, we can practically rule out Mazda developing a model internally, considering the costs involved.
However, the company could do what it has done before, that is, collaborate with another manufacturer.
Said Moro, “We could work with other groups to get it. Our coverage of the entire industry is only 50%, because we don't have a pickup truck. This is a good time to think about a future portfolio that would include one.”
The company is no stranger to finding partners. Car and Driver reports that Mazda has already worked with an OEM on a pickup truck called the BT-50, based on the Isuzu D-Max and built in Thailand for a handful of markets, including Australia. The BT-50 model is available in three cab configurations (single, extended or double), with 2x4 and 4x4 drivetrains.
Such a model would be unlikely to make it North America, however. Given standards that are probably very different than what’s required here.
More likely would be a partnership with a manufacturer that already offers a pickup truck in our market. We don’t know what options Mazda is looking at, but we can be sure it sees how well Ford is doing with its Maverick. Could Mazda return to its old ways?
More rugged variants are also conceivable in the midsize pickup category. Toyota has the Tacoma. And we know that the two companies already have partnership agreements.
All of this is just speculation, of course. What we do know, is that Mazda’s top brass is open to the idea.