The third-generation Mazda CX-5 has been launched in Australia ahead of first customer deliveries next week, and the all-new mid-size SUV brings more space, more technology and more features than the top-selling model it replaces.
Yet Mazda Australia is forecasting only marginally more sales in its first year than its nine-year-old predecessor generated over the past 12 months.
“Over 330,000 CX-5s have called Australia home. It is also no secret that Mazda has an extremely loyal customer base. More than 20,000 of our customers have owned more than one CX-5,” said Mazda Australia managing director Vinesh Bhindi at the vital new model’s local launch last week.
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“Today the CX-5 is one of Australia’s favourite SUVs, and I have no doubt that the next generation will continue to carry the torch and satisfy just as many, if not more, customers than it already has in the last 13 years.
“We expect to see upward of 25,000 sales for the year from the combined new and outgoing model.”
That’s only slightly more than the circa-24,500 sales notched up by the outgoing CX-5 over the past 12 months, and well down on the CX-5’s best sales year of 2018, when 26,698 sales of the then-new second generation were recorded amid the model’s seven-year streak as Australia’s favourite mid-size SUV.
For the record, Mazda Australia sold 22,742 CX-5s in 2025, when it placed second in the medium SUV sales race behind only the nation’s best-selling SUV, the all-hybrid Toyota RAV4 (51,947), which has just been replaced by a new model that will soon be available with plug-in hybrid power.
The importance of the new CX-5 to Mazda – both locally and globally – cannot be overstated. First launched in Australia in 2012, the original CX-5 quickly became a smash-hit, becoming the country’s best-selling medium SUV between 2013 and 2019, and Mazda’s best-seller locally since 2019, following the launch of the second generation in 2017.
The RAV4 eclipsed the CX-5 as Australia’s top-selling mid-size SUV in 2020 and has remained so since then, but the Mazda remains a top-seller in this market and – despite being nine years old – was the biggest selling SUV overall in January 2026.
Now sold in more than 100 countries, the CX-5 has also become Mazda’s best-selling model globally, and one of the Japanese automaker’s most popular models ever, recently surpassing the five million sales mark more quickly than both the 323 and Mazda 3 – the only two other models to achieve that milestone.
“This car is just as symbolic for Australia as it is on the world stage,” said Mr Bhindi. “Globally, CX-5 recently amassed five million global sales, a remarkable feat. Now appealing to all ages and all lifestyles, and with a model grade for every budget, it’s no surprise to see that CX-5 makes up to approximately 25 per cent of Mazda sales, and has topped our sales charts for the last seven years.”
However, for the third-generation CX-5 unveiled in Europe in July 2025, Mazda appears to be playing it safe by sticking with a winning formula, including an updated platform and engine, accompanied by a larger body featuring more equipment, technology and safety functions, and an interior that ditches almost all of its physical controls in favour of a larger infotainment touchscreen.
But the new five-grade, all-wheel drive CX-5 lineup is accompanied by higher prices, lacks any form of powertrain electrification, and faces stiffer competition from fresh rivals including not only the new-generation RAV4 but Mazda’s own upcoming CX-6e electric SUV, which alongside the CX-60 will give the Japanese brand three entrants in the booming medium SUV sector.
Mazda Australia revealed local pricing and specs for its new CX-5 back in March and we covered all that here, as well as why we won’t get the mild-hybrid engine offered in Europe, and why Mazda is developing its own hybrid powertrain to replace the existing CX-5’s punchy turbo-petrol engine sometime next year.
Watch this space for our first drive of the new Mazda CX-5 this Friday (June 12).