Mazda CX-60, CX-80 and CX-90 upgrades coming

The News

Mazda’s four Large Premium Architecture SUV models are approaching their mid-life upgrade cycle, with Mazda Australia confirming to carsales that it is currently involved in planning the next phase for the CX-60, CX-80 and CX-90 models.

The three SUVs use a dedicated rear-biased platform and are available with six-cylinder engines. Since their launch in 2023, Mazda has continually updated the models, including two attempts to change their suspension characteristics to better suit Australian tastes.

But a cloud has formed over the global future of the fourth model, the CX-70, which is set to be repositioned as the ‘CX-90 two-row’ in key markets, with Australia likely to follow suit.

With four years having elapsed since the series launched, Mazda is understood to be preparing a more significant exterior and interior styling update for the SUVs.

“We are coming into that [mid-life upgrade] window in the near future,” said Mazda Australia managing director Vinesh Bhindi.

A facelift could still be a year or more away, with the brand preparing another round of suspension and refinement changes set to arrive from December.

Mazda Australia is unique in taking the full quartet of large SUVs, and local boss Bhindi said there was no plan to rationalise the lineup: all four are staying.

But there could be a catch for the CX-70.

“As long as Mazda Corporation has that product available in right-hand drive, we will continue to offer it,” Bhindi affirmed.

Conventional timing would indicate that the SUV models are due for their mid-life facelift, but Mazda has maintained a high degree of secrecy regarding when this will occur.

The Japanese marque is currently testing camouflaged vehicles with CX-90 panels, but these are understood to be mules for Mazda’s delayed in-house EV models.

With visual changes potentially a year or more away, Mazda Australia is understood to be preparing another round of annual running changes to the existing models.

Clues are available via the European market, where the cars will be updated in December with revised rear suspension crossmember bushes, extra sound insulation, automated parking and minor styling changes.

Mazda plans to transfer efficiency improvements from its forthcoming Skyactiv-Z engine technology to the six-cylinder motors used in the large SUVs between 2028 and 2030.

The quartet has been a work in progress in Australia since the CX-60 arrived in 2023. Early examples drew criticism from road testers and buyers for their harsh ride quality, heavy steering and novel automatic transmission design, which many felt shifted roughly.

Mazda hurried softer rear dampers into production later in 2023 and offered replacements to unhappy owners while also flashing the transmission shifting software. A 2025 overhaul further revised the suspension and steering while introducing cheaper variants.

Further price reductions followed, with July 2026 adjustments equalising six-cylinder petrol and diesel pricing while reducing the plug-in hybrid premium to $5000.

The first change is likely to be the renaming of the CX-70 model for Australia as the two-row version of the CX-90, which to this point has been three-row only.

Both the CX-70 and CX-90 have identical exterior dimensions. Only their interior layouts and some styling cues differed.

But the CX-60, CX-80 and CX-90 are all set to continue, initially with further changes to improve their ride while also enhancing refinement, which has trailed rivals.

Price reductions have finally boosted CX-60 sales to a number close to Mazda’s bullish early goal of 6000 per year, but expectations of a facelift continue to grow as the models age.

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