Mazda Canada incoming CEO Amy Fleming stands in front of a new vehicle during an Empowering Auto event in Toronto in August, 2025. Fleming says the key to success these days is being able to quickly pivot and offering customers all the powertrain options.Petrina Gentile/The Globe and Mail
Mazda Canada’s incoming chief executive officer, Amy Fleming, says transparency and being “really nimble” are critical to managing two major industry headwinds: the Trump auto tariffs and government zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandates.
There is temporary relief on the ZEV front. On Friday, the federal government announced it would pause and conduct a 60-day review of the ZEV mandates. A key takeaway for all automakers is that the mandate will be waived for 2026 models, which means they don’t have to hit the 20 per cent of new vehicle sales target.
On the auto tariff front, there’s no relief and still a lot of uncertainty and unpredictability.
“There’s a lot of information that’s coming at us every day,” Fleming said during a recent Empowering Auto event in Toronto. “It’s changing. It’s unpredictable. It’s chaotic, so it is challenging to plan for. It’s disruptive for our operating models, our supply chains.”
Fleming, who’s being promoted from her role as chief operating officer at Mazda Canada on Oct. 1, said one of the biggest challenges is the ongoing tariff war and “just trying to sift through the information and misinformation to understand what’s actually factual, how it impacts us.”
Having an agile business strategy is key to navigating the turmoil, Fleming said. After Canada imposed 25-per-cent retaliatory tariffs on U.S.-produced vehicles, Mazda Canada shifted its production plan on its made-in-Alabama CX-50 SUV – a vehicle that accounted for about 15 per cent of its sales in 2024.
“That vehicle was doing really well for us, so we’ve had to put a pause on production due to the cost because of the tariffs – but we were able to pivot,” said Fleming, who will replace retiring CEO David Klan.
Mazda Canada brought in other vehicles that are made outside the U.S., including the Japanese-made CX-5 (a similar size to the CX-50 but slightly more compact) and the made-in-Mexico Mazda3s and CX-30s.
That move, according to Fleming, helped Mazda Canada’s sales, which were up 19.5 per cent year-to-date compared to the same period last year. In July, sales for the Mazda3 compact car spiked 126.7 per cent versus July 2024; while sales for the CX-30 subcompact crossover jumped 18.2 per cent year-over-year.
“Canada is a really important market for Mazda,” Fleming said, adding that, out of more than 130 markets globally, Canada is in the top 10.
Besides tariffs, ZEV mandates are still a concern despite the welcome news of a pause on the mandates federally.
“The decision to waive the 2026 model year targets is a great first step that will give the industry some much needed breathing room, but broader, more comprehensive changes are needed to match the policy with current market conditions and consumer demand,” wrote Klan in an email to The Globe. “Our hope is that the provinces of British Columbia and Quebec will follow the federal government’s lead and work together to create one, unified Canadian approach to reducing vehicle emissions.”
“Automakers now have certainty with respect to what they are dealing with for next year, anyway. This decision also allows everyone to focus on the larger existential tariff and trade crisis with the U.S,” said David Adams, head of Global Automakers of Canada, which represents Toyota, Honda and several overseas brands.
The ZEV mandate which is now being reviewed required 20 per cent of new vehicles, including passenger cars, SUVs and trucks, sold be either fully electric or plug-in hybrids in 2026 – that number would increase to 100 per cent by 2035. ZEV vehicle sales accounted for 8.6 per cent of new vehicle sales in the second quarter of 2025, according to Statistics Canada. Manufacturers that don’t meet the target may face hefty penalties, which Quebec and B.C. also already charge.
On the consumer side, the federal government has also paused EV consumer rebates; B.C. and Quebec have also reduced provincial EV rebates to a maximum of $4,000.
EV sales dropped across the country for the fifth-straight month. According to Statistics Canada’s latest data, EV sales were down 35 per cent in June 2025 versus the same month last year.
Mazda Canada’s current product portfolio includes seven models – the MX-5, Mazda3, CX-30, CX-5, CX-50, CX-70 and CX-90. The only vehicles that qualify for the mandate are the plug-in hybrid election (PHEV) versions Mazda sells of the CX-70 and CX-90. Those are both available as a mild hybrid and the CX-5 is offered as a hybrid.
Mazda did sell an all-electric vehicle, the MX-30 crossover, but it was flop. Launched in Quebec and B.C. in 2021 and the rest of Canada in 2023, Mazda axed its first BEV in 2024. Blame it on slow sales, only 161 kilometres of electric range and a high price tag of $42,650, before freight in 2024. Competitors such as the 2024 Hyundai Kona electric started at $46,399 and offered more features and had a longer battery range of 420 kilometres.
Mazda Motor Corp. is bringing an all-new global electric sedan to market called the EZ-6; it’s a joint venture with Mazda and its Chinese partner, Changan Automobile. Produced in China, it’ll go on sale in China and Europe, but there’s no plan to bring it to Canada.
“Right now, the Canadian government has a 100-per-cent tariff on Chinese production so there’s no plan to bring EZ-6 in the future,” Fleming said.
In Canada, Fleming is developing a “multi-solution plan” for Mazda’s future product portfolio that includes a mix of mild hybrids, plug-in hybrids, conventional hybrids and fully electric vehicles with the aim of having a fully electrified lineup by 2030.
“We want to have a multi-solution approach so consumers can choose based on their lifestyle and not have it forced by the government,” said Fleming, who launched her automotive career more than three decades ago working at a dealership in her hometown of Antigonish, N.S.
Moving forward, partnerships will also be important for Mazda Canada such as the one with its global alliance, Toyota.
“We’ve built a plant together in Alabama where the CX-50 is produced,” she said, adding that Toyota Finance also handles its sales finance business in Canada “so they are a strong alliance partner.”
Fleming said she hopes her legacy at Mazda Canada will be to have created “lasting emotional connections to our products and people … I really want to make sure customers are centric to all our decision so it is a win-win-win for us, our retailers and our customers.”