MAZDA has bowed to the inevitable and will broaden its EV offering in a more conventional direction.
Its current battery car, the MX-30, has an almost wilfully small battery and range (around 100 miles). Joining it next year will be this handsome new model, a big five-door hatchback called the Mazda 6e.
There will be a choice of two battery packs: a 68.8kWh unit with a motor producing 254bhp and 236 lb ft of torque; and a 80kWh version with a slightly less powerful 240bhp motor, still with 236 lb ft.
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Cars with the smaller battery should be capable of up to 300 miles on a single charge, claims Mazda, while the bigger battery should be good for 345 miles. The Mazda 6e is compatible with 200kW DC rapid charging, bringing the smaller battery from 10% to 80% in 22 minutes. The same is achieved in 45 minutes with the larger battery.
Both cars do the 0-62mph benchmark sprint in around 7.5 seconds, so Mazda clearly hasn’t set out to blitz the Tesla Model 3 Performance on acceleration.
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However, in Mazda tradition, it is a far more stylish car than Elon Musk’s bar of soap. There are clear echoes of the sadly departed Mazda 6 in the design, with flourishes such as frameless doors, glass roof, flush door handles and a horizontal tail light bar keeping it up to date. There is even an extendable rear spoiler which Mazda claims enhances stability at speed.
Inside there is a ‘floating’ centre console and instrument panel with a 14.6-inch touchscreen and a 10.2-inch digital instrument cluster with head-up display.
The boot has a 330 litre volume, with 70 litres of storage under the ‘bonnet’ - likely to be handy for storing mucky charging cables.
Mazda says the car will be offered in two trims, Takumi and Takumi Plus, but we don’t know much more about exact specification yet.
The 6e looks to have captured Mazda’s sense of style, but we don’t know yet if it will drive with the same flair and depth of engineering that we have come to expect from the company’s internal combustion-engined cars.
Jeremy Thomson, managing director at Mazda Motors UK, promises that it will. The Mazda 6e is a “real statement of intent for the future and illustrates how Mazda can bring great design, technology and style to battery electric vehicles”, he says.
“And with the suspension, power steering and braking carefully calibrated by the team at Mazda research Europe in Frankfurt to match European and UK preferences, I’m sure the Mazda 6e will be an electric car that delivers that engaging driver experience you’d expect from a Mazda.”
Hopefully we’ll be able to find out for ourselves some time during 2025.
