Australia will continue to miss out on the Honda Jazz city hatch, as the Japanese brand focuses on its more profitable SUV range instead.
Honda Australia’s new boss has poured cold water on a possible return to local showrooms for the Honda Jazz city car.
Honda Australia director Carolyn McMahon told media this week Honda’s focus for the next five years is SUVs and hybrids as it seeks to turn around a multi-year sales slide.
Ms McMahon, who took over day-to-day responsibilities for Honda Australia’s cars division in October 2022, also confirmed Honda would not introduce its first electric vehicle locally for at least another five years.
Honda Australia has been through a tumultuous period recently with the controversial introduction of a non-negotiable, fixed-price new-car sales structure in July 2021. This came after two years of falling sales and 15 months after the COVID-19 pandemic hammered the car industry globally.
Honda’s sales have continued to fall in the years since, reaching a 25-year low of 14,215 in 2022.
So far in 2023, Honda Australia’s sales are 10 per cent down year on year, which Ms McMahon blames on vehicle supply restrictions.
Ms McMahon said Honda Australia’s goal is to get back to 20,000 sales per year – and new SUVs and more hybrids would be the primary sales drivers.
Ms McMahon said there are no plans to drop Honda’s existing passenger cars, the Civic and the Accord, or to transform Honda into an SUV-only brand. But she did rule out any chance of additional passenger cars in the form the of the once popular Honda Jazz.
The Honda Jazz hatchback was sold in Australia for almost 20 years (2002-2021), clocking up 143,163 sales and accounting for almost one in five Hondas sold during that time. The Jazz’s best annual result was 11,663 in 2008, helping Honda Australia to its all-time high of 60,529.
Honda Australia dropped the popular city car in early 2021, six months after a new-generation Jazz was shown at the Tokyo Motor Show in October 2020.
Honda Jazz sales over the years
| Year | Jazz | Honda | Share |
| 2002 | 1408 | 23,587 | 6.00% |
| 2003 | 8501 | 30,817 | 27.60% |
| 2004 | 7360 | 36,474 | 20.20% |
| 2005 | 7914 | 47,001 | 16.80% |
| 2006 | 9441 | 54,202 | 17.40% |
| 2007 | 9563 | 52,571 | 18.20% |
| 2008 | 11,663 | 60,529 | 19.30% |
| 2009 | 8350 | 37,925 | 22.00% |
| 2010 | 8448 | 37,096 | 22.80% |
| 2011 | 7407 | 30,107 | 24.60% |
| 2012 | 9063 | 35,812 | 25.30% |
| 2013 | 5726 | 39,258 | 14.60% |
| 2014 | 7583 | 32,998 | 23.00% |
| 2015 | 9845 | 40,100 | 24.60% |
| 2016 | 8316 | 40,838 | 20.40% |
| 2017 | 7301 | 46,783 | 15.60% |
| 2018 | 6887 | 51,525 | 13.40% |
| 2019 | 5263 | 43,868 | 12.00% |
| 2020 | 2692 | 29,040 | 9.30% |
| 2021 | 432 | 17,562 | 2.50% |
| TOTAL | 143,163 | 788,093 | 18.20% |
Honda cited declining interest and shrinking margins in the light car segment.
Since then, the light car segment has evolved with more expensive, more upmarket offerings like the Toyota Yaris which is currently sold out nine months ahead.
When asked if Honda would look to bolster its ailing passenger car range with smaller vehicles like the new-generation Jazz small car, Ms McMahon said:
“There’s always opportunities for us, but I’ll be clear: Jazz isn’t in our plans.
“That’s not to say, you know, as we go forward and look at what the market’s doing and what vehicles are available to us we will continue to scan and look for opportunities but it’s not in our plans at the moment.”
Ms McMahon said the all-new Honda ZR-V medium SUV was due to arrive in local showrooms in the next two months, slotting between the HR-V small SUV and CR-V medium SUV.
Ms McMahon declined to comment on when the next-generation Honda CR-V – shown in right-hand drive form at the Bangkok show earlier this week – would go on sale in Australia.
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