Mazda recently announced its new electric vehicle spending plan in the company’s “Medium-Term Management Plan Update”. By 2030, Mazda will invest 1.5 trillion yen (about 75.75 billion yuan) In vehicle electrification, including procurement of electric vehicle batteries. It is reported that Mazda has reached an agreement with Envision Power to ensure the supply of electric vehicle batteries and increase the production of electric vehicles at domestic factories.
Mazda and many other Japanese automakers have been slow to transition to electrification. In the case of Mazda, the company has only ever sold one EV in Western markets, the Mazda MX30.
That could change now, with Mazda unveiling a 1.5 trillion yen spending plan for electrification as it plans to build EVs at its Hiroshima headquarters plant and export them to other countries, including the U.S. The company now expects electric vehicles to make up 30% to 40% of its total production by 2030, up from a previous target of 25%. Batteries are very important in electric vehicles, accounting for about 30% of the production cost of electric vehicles. Mazda is trying to reduce fixed costs through external procurement, and the company expects to spend hundreds of billions of yen on battery purchases by 2030.
To achieve Mazda’s ambitious electrification goals, the company has drawn up a three-stage electrification plan. First, the company will “leverage its technology assets, consisting of multiple electrification technologies, to achieve a reduced environmental footprint and to produce attractive products”. Second, Mazda will launch its next-generation hybrid powertrain and the first batch of new electric vehicles in China, which will later enter other markets. Third, the company will “facilitate the full rollout of battery electric vehicles and consider investing in battery production”.
Mazda did not specify the timing of these phases, nor did they give a date for their first pure electric vehicles.
Mazda also outlined three other initiatives the company will be taking. The overriding focus is on carbon reduction, with the ultimate goal of achieving carbon neutrality at Mazda’s production facilities by 2035 and full carbon neutrality by 2050. Mazda has also made it clear that it will work to reduce production costs and invest in a more “human-centric” user interface experience, primarily by investing in psychoanalysis and artificial intelligence.
