Mazda doesn't really care for global trends. In Hiroshima, they rather follow their own plan. So when everybody and their mothers stopped building...
compact, open sports cars with rear-wheel drive, Mazda introduced the MX-5 in the eighties. Their biggest success to date, we could say.
Timing is everything right. Speaking of timing, according to Mazda 2020 is the perfect moment to release an entirely electric compact SUV. The MX-30.
So that raises the question. Has Mazda aced the timing again?
They've certainly tried their best with the design. Just look at the deep headlights and the sloped roof. That gives the car a 4-door coupé-silhouette.
It's recognizable as a modern Mazda, but it's a tad more special. And I haven't even showed you the party piece yet. It has suicide doors.
It's a reference to the legendary RX-8. Or the Opel Meriva, but I'll go with the RX-8.
Despite the fact it's very special, a reverse-opening rear door, it's not incredibly practical. Getting on the rear seat means you have to...
squeeze underneath the roof and when you're finally sitting... I mean, it's a C-segment-SUV, so you'll have to think Opel Grandland-size,
but the space is incredibly limited. It's a pretty short car as well. I'm 1.80 m. tall myself and I'm very cramped back here.
It's not a very practical car to be honest. The boot can fit 336 litres, which isn't very groundbreaking either. It's not bad, but I won't call it good.
What is very groundbreaking however, is what happens at the front. This is recognizable as a modern Mazda, so there's a lot of minimalistic styling.
The materials look very good as well, and Mazda has put a special feature in the middle console. This panel is made of cork, as a reference to what Mazda...
used to make 100 years ago. Also, it's very easy to operate. There's touchscreen-controls for the air conditioning,
but there are physical buttons around it as well. Also, the touchscreen is incredibly quick, so it's very easy to use.
The upper screen is for multimedia and satnav, and it's still controlled by a central iDrive-like controller.
It looks very good and it's incredibly easy to use, so if you're looking for a car inbetween €30.000 and €40.000, this is by far the best system...
available, qualitatively speaking. Of course, we have to drive it first.
At AutoWeek, we usually like the way Mazda's drive. This MX-30 is no exception. There's some kind of nimble feeling in Mazda's which appeals to...
a very broad audience. It's always very smooth, but the dampers become serious whenever it's necessary.
Sure, this car weighs 1.650 kg, which isn't very light. That also means it feels a tad sturdier, but it easily processes the imperfections on in the road.
The steering is light, but you know exactly how far you have to steer to get around the corner in the way you want.
And the moment when it needs to, the car tightens up. You can push it pretty far as well, before the nose starts losing grip.
The car has a very smooth drive. Dynamic when you need it to be, but comfortable otherwise. That's just great.
1.645 kg. Again, not a light car, but it's very decent for a fully electric SUV. That's because Mazda has only put necessary things in it.
The electric motor only produces 145 horsepower and 271 Nm of torque. That's not a lot for an electric car, and it's not a fast car because of it.
It does 0-100 km/h in ten seconds.
The inbetween-sprints are nice and smooth. Also, you never get the impression it doesn't have enough power and you have the...
advantages of an electric drivetrain. Silence, smoothness, and it has a really nice drive.
You're able to control the amount of regenerative braking with a paddle behind the steering wheel. That means you'll be driving with one pedal...
for 99 percent of the time. Only the last little bit, from 5 to 0 km/h, has to be done by using the brake pedal. You can do that with regenerative...
braking. That's too bad, but 99 percent of the time it's done with only one pedal. It's all nice and quiet, which I like very much.
Unfortunately however, Mazda has used the same strategy of 'only necessary amounts' with the battery pack.
And that doesn't work as good. It only has a battery pack of 35,5 kWh, which isn't very big. That means this car doesn't have a very big...
range. Only 200 km according to WLTP. And that's when the rationalisations start. Mazda says they have to mine the resources first,
they have to recycle them, bigger battery packs mean higher environmental taxes and that's not what Mazda wants.
They even claim that the average electric driver only drives 49 km per single journey, so you don't need additional range. Also, you'd be tugging around...
unnecessary weight, which limits the optimal efficiency of the car. And it goes on with that. On one hand, they do have a point.
However, it doesn't work that way. Nobody buys cars for only rational reasons. If they did, you wouldn't be able to explain the success of SUV's.
Second, there's no such thing as the average driver. The 49 kilometres will certainly make sense, but it consists of people who drive much more...
or people who drive much less. And if you drive much more than 49 kilometres, you can't go further than around 180 kilometres.
That's very limited. Also, you're only able to single-phase charge the MX-30. You can't even use the available 32 ampère if you have such a charger.
So on a alternating current, it won't charge quicker than 6,6 kW. On direct current, you'll only reach 50 kW. Still not groundbreaking.
So for a lot of drivers, it's quite the limitation. And if you don't drive as much, why would you spend €34.000 on a car like this?
The problem is this. Sure, this is a very refined car for its price, but for a few thousand Euro's less, you've got a MG ZS EV, which has more range.
If you spend a little more, you can buy a Kia e-Niro, which has a lot more range. Again, they won't have the same amount of refinement, but in an...
electric car, range is a pretty big thing. If I tested this a few years ago, I would've been able to see past that. In 2020 however, there are too much...
competitors which do a better job with the most important feature of an electric car: range and charging times.
So when it comes to timing, I'm afraid I'll have to conclude that Mazda has missed the boat on this one.