Why Mazda's first EV matters to you

The just-launched 2021 Mazda MX-30 M Hybrid marks the beginning of a new wave of electrified models from the Japanese brand, with full-electric variants to transform the line-up from mid-year and a range-extender electric powertrain expected to follow in 2022.

The unique range-extender marks the return of rotary engine power to the Japanese brand, and while still to be officially confirmed for Australia, Mazda’s local boss Vinesh Bhindi said at the launch of the MX-30 Hybrid “if that is available for Australia, of course we will consider it”.

The ‘M’ in the Mazda MX-30 M Hybrid denotes that the powertrain is a mild hybrid, which keeps the brand a step behind Toyota and others that have for years offered series/parallel hybrids that run on electricity alone, offer significant reductions in fuel consumption and are now attracting strong demand from Australian buyers.

According to Mazda Australia marketing and product director Alastair Doak, the full-electric version of the MX-30 will be vital given that it will meet the needs of a growing number of consumers, mark a positive step for the brand and hand the company more opportunity to lobby government for support.

This will in turn assist Mazda Australia when negotiating with its headquarters in Japan for more electrified models, including the MX-30 range-extender that uses a small rotary engine to keep the battery charged after the electric-only range has been exceeded – meaning an end to range anxiety.

“They [Mazda Corporation in Japan] are saying, ‘Put the technology that’s most relevant to the marketplace’, and obviously still a lot of our electricity comes from brown coal,” said Doak.

“We had to have that conversation with them [Mazda in Japan], but we said, ‘Look, EV is still in its infancy in Australia, but we want to be part of that conversation.’ We can’t really be having conversations with governments or others and saying, ‘Well, we’re not going to sell one.’

“That’s a bit silly. So the idea was that we bring it in and then that kind of gets us a seat at the table to start having those conversations.”

Mazda has no intention of walking away from the internal combustion engine and continues to espouse its “building block strategy” that focuses on improving its conventional powertrains first before moving deeply into electrification.

This was amply demonstrated by the sophisticated SKYACTIV-X engine, which according to Doak was not combined with the mild-hybrid system on MX-30 once “the balance of performance, pricing and everything else” was considered.

Mazda has also developed an all-new inline six-cylinder engine and rear-drive platform that will underpin the next Mazda6 and other models.

“We always said that we would improve the internal combustion engine first. We’ve done that with first the SKYACTIV engines, and SKYACTIV-X is the next iteration of that,” said Doak.

Before MX-30, there have been other Mazda vehicles with mild-hybrid components on board, such as the iLoop capacitor-based braking energy recovery system of the Mazda6. And automatic engine idle-stop is almost universal throughout the range.

“The next evolution of that [iLoop] is to give it more oomph, I guess, and that’s mild hybrid. Then we’ll talk about other things down the track, and you would imagine that with a large platform they’ll be more electrification coming there,” said Doak.

“We’ve also got EV – a first EV – with MX-30, which is obviously full [battery-electric], and then we’ve got the rotary range-extender on top of that.

“So, in terms of building block, you’ll get the better bang for your buck if you improve the internal combustion engine because the majority of cars remain internal combustion.

“What was last year’s EV sales? [Nought] point five per cent of the market?

“That is true today as it was when we first talked about this 10 years ago, but our [corporate average] CO2 numbers continue to improve. So yeah, so that’s what we’re on.

“We’re on the journey … we’re on that path.”

Related: 2021 Mazda MX-30 M Hybrid Review
Related: 2021 Mazda MX-30 EV Review
Related: Full electric version of Mazda MX-30 revealed