Mazda’s New MX-30 BEV Has RX-8 Doors For Some Reason
Mazda has revealed its first full battery-powered car, the MX-30 crossover. It’s the same length and width as the combustion-driven CX-30 but stands 30mm taller, and is quite different to look at.
High shoulders and a set of boxier, straighter lines frame rear doors of the same style used on the RX-8 rotary-powered sports car. These rear-hinged half-doors permit full-size front doors while still giving good access to the rear; the trade-off being that you have to open the front doors to get at the rear ones in the first place.
Interestingly, Mazda has gone down the same route as Honda with its dinky electric e supermini, deciding not to use as big a battery as it could. According to WLTP testing, the MX-30’s 35.5kWh battery pack is good for 124 miles of range; a figure that has caused rumblings of discontent among potential buyers before.
Mazda says that range more than quadruples the European average daily mileage, but drivers are not yet content en mass to drop from 300-600 miles of fuel tank range to just 100 or so before range anxiety stops play. Mazda knows it, and openly states that it sees the MX-30 as a ‘second family car’ – a job that usually involves less mileage and a life spent almost totally in traffic.
Maxda’s other reasoning for using a smaller battery includes dynamics. By keeping weight as low as possible (for a BEV), the firm says it has been able to maintain the signature Mazda qualities of a responsive chassis and lively handling. Double the range and you spoil the drive. On that note, Mazda hasn’t released power or performance figures yet.
Inside the MX-30 there are surfaces and upholstery made from eco-friendly materials, including replacing ‘much’ real leather with vegan alternatives. Even the cork around the ‘floating’ centre console is sourced in a sustainable way.
There’s also a sound system that actively emits fake motor noise, matching its pitch and ‘pressure’ to what you’re doing with the throttle. Mazda says this aural input helps drivers keep the otherwise hushed car at a constant speed without needing to keep looking at the speedometer.
The MX-30 name was chosen as a direct reference to the size of the car, aligning to the CX-30 between the CX-3 and CX-5, and also to the ‘MX’ prefix that Mazda reserves for cars that ‘challenge assumptions.’
Comments
I really dig this. The design meets the current shining Mazda standards, and I particularly like than metal-wood multi-level centre console design. The RX-8 suicide doors won’t be the most practical solution (as you can only open them if the adjacent front door is open), but they’re an intriguing and original quirk that lets it stand out.
The technical specs confused me a first, but the more i think about it the more sense it makes. As stated in the article, as a causation or result of the small battery, Mazda are marketing this a second (family) car. I found this odd because I don’t think anyone specifically markets their cars on the basis that the customer already owns one - even high-end manufacturers whose customers almost certainly own one or multiple cars, but they never use that as a USP. But in the context of the electric car market it makes sense: no-one I know who owns an electric car, has said car, as their only vehicle. And Mazda probably accepts that (unlike other manufacturers) that current EV’s are not quite as suited to all aspects of modern driving as an ICE equivalent, which is what I think many EV owners have on the brain when they choose not to sell the rest of their cars.
Where I think Mazda’s ideology may miss the mark a little is the “dynamic” reasoning. I’m not sure Mazda should be using this as a primary argument for the small battery. I don’t think real-world electric cars (forget your Rimacs and your Tesla ludicrous-modes) your can be considered as proper performance machines yet (I long for a time where I can be proven wrong) as any spirited driving absolutely tanks the range, and of course the lack of engine noise or gearbox are not ‘involving’ attributes. Sure, over one lap on a circuit, where running out of juice isn’t a disaster if a charger is at hand, electric performance cars are viable, but not on the open road over sustained distances just yet.
Also, as much as I admire & adore Mazda’s purist ethos that is seen throughout their product line-up, how many cars (except the MX5) does it really sell on this basis, especially without a dedicated performance arm? Generally, the way to sell dynamically-orientated cars, is to brand them as dynamically-orientated cars. Performance cars aren’t sold in large volumes because they are a market niche. I see this MX-30 as the worst example of this, because when on earth is a volume-selling, non-sporty spec, electric crossover going to sell to someone remotely invested in driving for pleasure? It’s like adding heavy sound-deadening to a track-only car and telling customers ‘we made your race car slower so it’ll be easier to live with’.
Now for the rest of Mazda’s range, putting some emphasis on driver involvement during development doesn’t affect the overall product for the worse, which is more than fine. But here one of the electric car’s most contentious issues is worse off because of it. And it’s not even visibly or statistically performance-oriented.
tl;dr - I really like it but I don’t understand why Mazda have made this car worse off in the name of driver involvement when it’ll be sold as a basic electric crossover to people who don’t give a monkeys. (Though it does appeal to me)
Think I’d still have one over a Niro/Kona or e-Golf though. As a second car, obviously.
Rediscovered parts from the rx-8 lmao 🤣
As a Mazda fan, I think it’s hideous because of the cheap square-ish plastic wheel arches and and the Dodge Challenger-ish front mask & headlight combo. Being a crossover, I still don’t see how anyone could get in the back without 1.) folding the front seat 2.) becoming a contortionist, It’s got suicide type rear doors, sure, but, how on earth do people get in the back? It’s like the late 90s over again when people thought having a huge family and owning a small 2/3 door hatchback was a sane idea
So…it’s got badges & doors like an RX-8,but it looks (more like a Toyota GB RAV4),drives & have a range that’s NOTHING like an RX-8 (at least 250 miles w/ the kind of driving a Rotary Engine deserves) so I’ll ask again: mazda_uk What kind of conventions is it going to defy?
Why not, they were good doors
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That’s interesting….
Couldn’t agree more…it’s got badges & doors like an RX-8,but it looks (more like a [Toyota GB] RAV4),drives & have a range that’s NOTHING like an RX-8 (at least 250 miles w/ the kind of driving a Rotary Engine deserves) so I’ll ask again: [Mazda_UK] What kind of conventions is it going to defy?
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