Photo: Mazda
After selling just 120 MX-30 units until November, it seems Mazda wants to tell people interested in the car that it will soon have a more sensible version for sale. Instead of the meager 100 miles of EPA range the EV derivative offers, Mazda is promising the MX-30 PHEV for 2022.
As MotorTrend stressed, the Japanese carmaker is calling it a PHEV (plug-in hybrid electric vehicle). That may be pretty revealing of the battery pack capacity Mazda intends to have with the electric crossover (and rather disappointing too).
Mazda once said it would have “multiple xEV technologies.” They included a range-entender vehicle, a PHEV, and an HEV (hybrid electric vehicle). In all cases, the wheels would be powered by electric motors, and Mazda would just use the engines to produce electricity.
According to California’s ZEV (Zero Emission Vehicle) regulation, a “Range Extended Battery Electric Vehicle” or “BEVx” is a vehicle that can run at least “75 all-electric miles” (121 km). If Mazda decided to call its new MX-30 derivative a PHEV, it must offer less range than 75 miles. There are only two possibilities for that. The first is that Mazda will offer a much smaller battery pack than the MX-30 EV currently has: 35.5 kWh. The second is that the added weight makes the 35.5 kWh battery pack offer even less range than the official 100 miles EPA certified.
The first hypothesis would be terrible. The MX-30 does not lack space under the hood for a rotary engine: open it, and you’ll notice there is plenty of room there for the Wankel that could extend the range of this electric crossover. Mazda could just fit it there and offer a slightly more capable vehicle.
However, the Japanese carmaker may have decided it would be too expensive. In this case, Mazda’s official excuse would be that it would be too heavy, but the truth is that it could be trying to save money on batteries, which is not a very wise way to promote electric mobility.
It may be the case that Mazda is just like Toyota, Honda, and Nissan waiting for better battery tech (solid-state batteries) to emerge before going all-in on electric vehicles. However, Mazda is by far the company doing less in its electrification efforts.
It once tried to promote the MX-30 as its first EV conceived as such from the ground up and failed: the car has a conventional hybrid version for sale in Japan. After such an embarrassing mistake, Mazda could at least give it a range-extender derivative by just adding a rotary engine to the 35.5 kWh battery pack it already offers. Reducing it will be a massive mistake, especially considering the exiguous official EPA range it already offers with a 35.5 kWh battery pack.
Mazda once said it would have “multiple xEV technologies.” They included a range-entender vehicle, a PHEV, and an HEV (hybrid electric vehicle). In all cases, the wheels would be powered by electric motors, and Mazda would just use the engines to produce electricity.
According to California’s ZEV (Zero Emission Vehicle) regulation, a “Range Extended Battery Electric Vehicle” or “BEVx” is a vehicle that can run at least “75 all-electric miles” (121 km). If Mazda decided to call its new MX-30 derivative a PHEV, it must offer less range than 75 miles. There are only two possibilities for that. The first is that Mazda will offer a much smaller battery pack than the MX-30 EV currently has: 35.5 kWh. The second is that the added weight makes the 35.5 kWh battery pack offer even less range than the official 100 miles EPA certified.
The first hypothesis would be terrible. The MX-30 does not lack space under the hood for a rotary engine: open it, and you’ll notice there is plenty of room there for the Wankel that could extend the range of this electric crossover. Mazda could just fit it there and offer a slightly more capable vehicle.
However, the Japanese carmaker may have decided it would be too expensive. In this case, Mazda’s official excuse would be that it would be too heavy, but the truth is that it could be trying to save money on batteries, which is not a very wise way to promote electric mobility.
It may be the case that Mazda is just like Toyota, Honda, and Nissan waiting for better battery tech (solid-state batteries) to emerge before going all-in on electric vehicles. However, Mazda is by far the company doing less in its electrification efforts.
It once tried to promote the MX-30 as its first EV conceived as such from the ground up and failed: the car has a conventional hybrid version for sale in Japan. After such an embarrassing mistake, Mazda could at least give it a range-extender derivative by just adding a rotary engine to the 35.5 kWh battery pack it already offers. Reducing it will be a massive mistake, especially considering the exiguous official EPA range it already offers with a 35.5 kWh battery pack.
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