Car buyers face ‘inhibiting factors’ for EV adoption: Mazda USA CEO

Mazda USA CEO and President Jeff Guyton joins Yahoo Finance Live to share his thoughts on the current EV market and charging infrastructure.

Video transcript

REPORTER: The auto industry is on notice. After Tesla announced that it would be lowering its prices for its electric vehicles, Ford quickly followed suit with its Mustang Mach-E. Our next guest, his company raised prices in 2022, but with a new EV strategy that may change this year.

Mazda North America President and CEO, Jeff Guyton, joins us now alongside Yahoo Finance senior autos reporter, Pras Subramanian. Jeff, good to see you, sir. Your average price point hit an average of over 49k last December. What is Mazda doing to stay competitive? Do you have to lower prices?

JEFF GUYTON: Well, I don't know about that, but we are introducing right now the biggest and most powerful vehicle that Mazda has ever built and sold commercially with our CX-90. And we're taking an important step forward into the electrification journey that the industry is on.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Hey, Jeff. Pras here. So that new CX-90 we just saw that right now on our screen here. Tell us why it's so important for the brand and how do you plan to electrify this product?

JEFF GUYTON: So CX-90 launches with our most powerful engine ever in both gasoline mild hybrid and also plug-in hybrid forms. So the platform has only electrified powertrains. And it really represents a big step forward in terms of the premiumness of the Mazda brand. And we're bringing that together with a premium experience in our new retail evolution showrooms across the country.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: So Jeff, I know that CX-90 has a new platform there, rear wheel drive-biased, more sporty, and things like that. Things what Mazda is known for. But was there any thought of making this a fully electric vehicle, like a battery EV?

JEFF GUYTON: Yes, but what we see happening right now is that customers are obviously quite interested in the journey of electrification, but there are also inhibiting factors because the customer experience for electric is, let's say, it has growing pains right now. And so whether you're talking about charging, or cold weather, or hot weather, or electricity in California in the summertime, and so forth.

So what we see is that the plug-in hybrid model of CX-90 really can address people's interest in electrification. They can do their daily driving on electric. They can charge at home, because most of these customers will have the ability to charge at home or at work. And then for longer trips and so forth, they don't have to face a range anxiety of any sort.

REPORTER: Jeff, it sounds as though you think others are throwing all their eggs in the EV basket a little bit too soon that the demand isn't quite there. Is that what you're seeing out there in the marketplace?

JEFF GUYTON: I think there's a lot of demand. There's a lot of interest. But the technology and the scenery around it in terms of charging and so forth is not really mature yet. So we think that the customer experience right now suffers a bit, and that our formula can provide something more timely.

REPORTER: Yeah, how far away are we from having the infrastructure needed?

JEFF GUYTON: I think we're quite a ways off. And in addition to the infrastructure, nobody really understands quite yet how much supply there's going to be of rare earths and other materials we need for electric vehicles.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Hey, Jeff. So 2022 rounded off with a strong Q4 for you guys. 2022 overall not that great, but building momentum. Is that what you guys are seeing in 2023 as we enter in January? And then also, are you guys seeing some sort of macro kind of headwinds demand concerns coming up?

JEFF GUYTON: So just on 2022, it was our best market share in 20 years. And it was nearly 300,000 sales for us, which is pretty good. But going forward into 2023, clearly there are some headwinds for the industry in terms of interest rates and other things. But actually, I think there's probably still slightly more demand than supply.

REPORTER: All right. CEO and President of Mazda USA, Jeff Guyton and Pras Subramanian. Appreciate you both. Thanks so much.