CX-5 Diesel is No More

Mazda is a well-respected major automaker that produces some of the most popular, best-selling vehicles in the auto industry. They are especially renowned for the SUVs they design and produce. Almost every SUV that Mazda releases become an instant best-selling model on the mainstream auto market.

CX-5 Diesel is No More

Although Mazda has multiple SUVs within their vehicle lineup, the number-one best-selling SUV in Mazda’s vehicle lineup is the Mazda CX-5. The Mazda CX-5 is a compact crossover SUV that offers high performance on the road, is fun to drive, and is designed with a variety of comfortable amenities as well as high-tech infotainment and advanced safety features.

The Mazda CX-5 was released by Mazda for the 2012 model year, and it has been a popular compact crossover SUV on the mainstream auto market ever since its original debut. It has been the recipient of multiple prestigious awards, and many critics and experts in the auto industry agree that theMazda CX-5 belongs among the top best-selling compact crossover SUVs on the mainstream auto market.

In 2020, more than 146,000 Mazda CX-5 models were sold in the United States alone. These numbers put the CX-5 among some of the top-selling compact crossover SUVs on the mainstream auto market. Sales of the CX-5 declined just over 5% from 2019, but that is still impressive considering that the vast majority of vehicles experienced much more significant sales declines in 2020 due to dealership shutdowns and production complications due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The fact that the CX-5 was able to keep its sales numbers about the same between 2019 and 2020 serves as a testament to the quality of this high-performing compact crossover SUV.

About the 2019 Mazda CX-5’s Diesel Engine

For the 2019 model year, Mazda released a long-awaited diesel engine option for their best-selling CX-5 compact crossover SUV.

The 2019 Mazda CX-5 was available with three engine options—including a standard base 187-horsepower 2.5-L four-cylinder engine, a 227-horsepower turbocharged 2.5-L four-cylinder engine, and a turbo-diesel engine.

This turbo-diesel engine option was a 2.2-L Skyactiv-D four-cylinder engine that delivered 168 horsepower and 290 lb.-ft. of torque on the road and paired with a six-speed automatic transmission.

Why Did the Mazda CX-5 Diesel Die?

Mazda spent multiple years in the process of designing their own diesel-powered SUV. They first announced their plans to produce and distribute a vehicle that runs on a diesel-powered engine more than a decade ago—way back in 2010. Many drivers who are fans of diesel-powered vehicles immediately got excited about the promise of a diesel-powered Mazda vehicle hitting the U.S. auto market.

However, it took nine years from the time of Mazda’s announcement of a diesel-powered vehicle for this major automaker to actually release a diesel-powered model to the mainstream auto market in the United States. Much of the reasoning behind this extremely long delay lay in the complicated process of getting diesel-powered vehicles approved to be sold in the U.S. The United States has very strict and severe emissions standards, and Mazda struggled to produce a powerful and efficient diesel-powered engine that would pass these emissions standards tests.

Finally, Mazda announced that their 2019 CX-5 crossover would be available with a diesel-powered engine. They did finally follow through with the available turbo-diesel engine for the 2019 Mazda CX-5. However, after just one year of selling the CX-5 diesel-powered model, Mazda officially announced that their CX-5 would no longer be available with a diesel-powered engine. This major automaker also quickly shut down inquiries about the potential introduction of a diesel-powered engine to one or more of the other vehicles in their lineup.

The primary reason why Mazda decided to kill off their diesel-powered engine so quickly in the United States after almost a decade of trying to get it approved for sale on the U.S. market is the underwhelming lack of sales of the diesel-powered CX-5 throughout 2019 and 2020.

These low sales numbers are likely due to the fact that the diesel-powered engine that Mazda finally brought to the U.S. was much different than the diesel engine they had promised U.S. consumers back in 2010.

Instead of being extremely fuel-efficient and ultra-powerful with clean emissions, the turbo-diesel engine that Mazda finally got approved in the United States was disappointingly weak and inefficient. It also relied on a urea injection system to keep its carbon emissions low enough to pass U.S. standards, and Mazda’s diesel engine just barely passed these emissions tests even with this system.

Plus, the starting price of the diesel-powered Mazda CX-5 model was also significantly higher than that of most other 2019 CX-5 models equipped with one of the two other available non-diesel engine options—despite the fact that the turbo-diesel-equipped CX-5 was less powerful than CX-5 models equipped with either of these other available two engines.

Although it might seem like a waste to finally debut a diesel-powered vehicle just to take it off the market after a single model year, it seems that Mazda was unable to accomplish what they really wanted to accomplish with their turbo-diesel engine and that significantly affected the diesel-powered CX-5’s sales numbers in a negative way. Although no future diesel-powered engine has been mentioned by Mazda, it is possible that this major automaker will design a diesel engine in the future that is more efficient and more powerful than their turbo-diesel engine of 2019.