• The Detroit Bureau, Wednesday, February 15, 2012 10:27 AM

Mazda is in a serious bind. The maker is forecasting a $1.3 billion loss for the current fiscal year, which ends March 31. And it is struggling to reverse a sales slide that saw it drop to 1.25 million units, a 2% dip, in calendar 2011. Mazda may need a new partner to replace the once-powerful alliance it had with Ford Motor. It could also force Mazda to have to share its new and highly touted SkyActiv powertrain technology with an erstwhile competitor.

The company was, for much of the last two decades, effectively operating as the Japanese subsidiary of Ford Motor Co. That changed only after the arrival of Alan Mulally in 2006, the then-new Ford CEO putting a focus on the U.S. company’s core brands. Mulally sold off such European subsidiaries as Volvo and Jaguar and has slashed its stake in Mazda from 33% to just 4%.

Mazda has been lagging behind in some key areas of advanced technology, especially battery-based drivetrains. Without a version of Ford’s gas-electric technology, it doesn’t plan to have a hybrid of its own on the market until after mid-decade.

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