LOS ANGELES — Mazda is discontinuing two of its slowest-selling fashions within the U.S., the entry-level CX-3 subcompact crossover and the Mazda6 sedan, because it shifts the product lineup to a brand new technology of automobiles that higher mirror its premium intentions.

Mazda stated in a brief statement Friday it can cease promoting the CX-3 and midsize Mazda6 after the 2021 mannequin yr as a result of evolving shopper tastes.

The transfer was not surprising.

Final yr, Mazda launched a brand new CX-30 crossover as a bigger subcompact above the smaller CX-3 and loaded the brand new mannequin with premium options on increased trims. And on base trims, the getting older CX-3 was solely $1,260 cheaper than the brisker CX-30, which has been a runaway hit for the model.

Via April, Mazda bought 2,406 models of the CX-3 and 20,121 CX-30s, in accordance with the corporate. The CX-3, launched in 2015, was the one Mazda mannequin that posted a year-over-year decline within the first 4 months of the yr.

Mazda can be getting ready to introduce a new crossover, in all probability a midsize mannequin, at an Alabama manufacturing unit underneath development as a part of a three way partnership with Toyota. That automobile may revive the CX-7 identify and would return Mazda to a four-crossover lineup.

The most recent Mazda6, a favourite amongst auto writers and lovers, has by no means been an enormous hit with most of the people in comparison with heavy hitters such because the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord. Mazda can be getting ready a brand new rear-wheel-drive structure that would imply an upmarket sedan sooner or later. Mazda has not given particulars on which automobiles will get the brand new platform.

Mazda is the newest model to desert the shrinking midsize automobile market — lengthy dominated by Toyota and Honda — after Buick, Ford, Chrysler and Dodge.

U.S. gross sales of the Mazda6 rose 11 % within the first 4 months of the yr, however a part of the rise displays a plunge in demand final yr in the course of the early months of the pandemic. Mazda6 gross sales tallied 5,802 within the four-month interval this yr, making it the model’s third slowest-selling automobile after the CX-3 and the area of interest MX-5 Miata sports activities automobile.