A total of 88,000 Mazdas have been sold in China from January to May, Caijing reported Tuesday, quoting a statement made by Mazda China executives. However, the manufacturer only sold 16,000 vehicles in May, representing a year-on-year decrease of 16 percent.

Individual sales results from Mazda's two Chinese joint ventures, Changan Mazda and FAW Mazda, were mixed. FAW Mazda sold a total of 51,000 vehicles from January to May, 9 percent less than what it sold in the first five months of 2011, while counterpart Changan Mazda sold 36,000 vehicles in the five month period, growing 21 percent from last year.

Although Mazda China Board Chairman and CEO Noriaki Yamada admitted that sales in May failed to meet expectations, he was still confident that the hot-selling Mazda 3 Xingcheng, which made its market debut last September, wouldl help the manufacturer recover later in the latter half of the year.

Mazda 3 Xingcheng [Photo/gasgoo.com]

Some analysts point to Mazda's lack of attention to the Chinese market as one of its key failings. "FAW Mazda's models are fairly old, and the speed with which they update them is incredibly slow," Liu Feng, an analyst with Southwest Securities, commented. "Relying on only a few models to conquer the market is (a strategy) that is hard to succeed with in China," he remarked.

Although having been updated several times, FAW Mazda's flagship model, the Mazda 6, has failed to meet changing Chinese demands. Mazda's plans for the Chinese market have been critiqued as excessively conservative when compared to its rivals.

"The (Fukushima) earthquake last year did deal a major blow to Japanese manufacturers," Liu said. "However, Honda, Toyota and other (Japanese) manufacturers recovered very quickly this year." He said Mazda's losses from the earthquake were relatively small and blamed its marketing and sales tactics for  declining sales in China.

FAW Mazda's poor performance has been a thorn in co-owner FAW Car's side, with the company finally deciding in February to invest 1.5 billion yuan ($238.39m) to bring the JV's product line up to date.

The manufacturer has plans to bring over the 2012 Mazda 6, 2012 Mazda 8, CX-5 and other models to China this year.

2012 Mazda 8 [Photo/gasgoo.com]