Electrogenic Mazda MX-5 review

Pop-up headlights and instant torque: do they mix? Electromod of beloved 1989 roadster has the answer

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“An MX-5 with torque?! What’s that like?!" quipped a colleague. Well, mate, in short, the Electrogenic Mazda MX-5 is exactly what I imagined it would be like – except maybe a bit squirrellier.

The good folk at Oxfordshire-based Electrogenic have created a kit for the Mk1 (NA) Mazda MX-5 of 1989 and installed it in the car before you.

They’ve substituted the four-cylinder petrol engine for a single electric motor, pumping out 160bhp and 229lb ft torque, and 42kWh of batteries. The five-speed manual has been substituted for a single-speed auto. Range is said to be in the region of 160 miles.

Quick summary? It steers, stops and rides like a Mk1 MX-5, but it really goes. It wraps up 0-60mph in around six seconds and the shove from 0-30mph is urgent, unfiltered and very different from the original MX-5 experience, where you need to wind the engine up to at least 5500rpm to get the most from it.

If you’re looking at this from an ultra-direct, retro electric sports car perspective, it doesn’t really have any rivals – but if you’re willing to open your horizons, suddenly it gets really serious. 

The MG Cyberster is very different in outlook but ultimately an electric roadster, whereas cars such as the Honda S200 fill the remit for cool Japanese convertibles.

The Electrogenic MX-5 is quite a hard car to peg down, its nicheness giving it virtually no direct competitors. Yet indirect contenders for your cash run to every luxury item you can think of.

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DESIGN & STYLING

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The electromod kit is designed to be completely reversible. So no holes are cut, the car retains its original numberplates and the DVLA still has it registered as an MX-5 – only the means of propulsion now states 'electric'. Largely, it looks and feels like a Mk1 MX-5.

Its 42kWh worth of battery cells are mounted beneath the bonnet (replacing the engine) and under the boot floor (replacing the fuel tank).

Conversions can be done to all 1989-1997 MX-5s (and Eunos Roadsters and Mazda Miatas) and take around a week.

There's a load of very neat integrations. The charging port is housed where the fuel filler cap is. The gearbox looks exactly like the five speed manual but hides an auto; push it for forward, pull it for reverse. Inside the glovebox is a small screen with a more accurate, percentage-style battery readout, as the fuel readout has been repurposed to show charge.

The speedo dial remains on the right of the binnacle (with the jitteryness of a proper classic car with Smith dials), while the left side still looks like an RPM gauge but actually cleverly integrates the power/reserve gauge, much like you get in a Rolls-Royce.

INTERIOR

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As this kit is completely reversible, the interior is virtually identical to the Mk1 MX-5's. This means you still get the nearly perfect, very classical low-slung seating position with straight pedal alignment and a generally tight cockpit with little in the way of distractions.

The steering wheel and gearknob of our test car are aftermarket Nardi units that help it retain a ‘90s charm. It retains a manual handbrake too – a lovely juxtaposition to the modern running tech.

The boot, too, is kept original – no batteries back there eating up space.

The MX-5 I’m driving here is the first customer car Electrogenic has made. The customer lives in London and specced a speed limiter. This consists of three twist dials (20mph, 30mph, off) that sit in the central area between the driver and passenger, along with the drive-mode selector that runs through Eco, Normal and Sport. 

In a Mk1 MX-5, this space has a slide -back coin holder. In 2025, no one does coins, so it’s not missed.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

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Performance levels largely depend on which drive mode you’ve chosen. If we can discount quite how the car achieves these levels (we will come back to this later), then I can say that Eco makes it feel remarkably similar to an original Mk1 MX-5; normal is a bit like a 2.0-litre Mk3 MX-5; and Sport is much like the latest Mk4 MX-5 in 2.0-litre guise.

This is all on paper. How it doles out its power is wildly different from any MX-5 I’ve driven before. This customer car I’m driving is on eco tyres, too, as it will largely be used as a runaround in London.

In Sport mode, the 229lb ft of torque completely overwhelms the Rapid P309 rears (Toyo Proxes at the front) via the original open differential. Drift schools should teach in these. 

With a bit of steering dialled in, you need only about a quarter throttle to break traction.

The original suspension is delicately set up: soft and squidgy with a fair bit of give, making the inevitable slip easy to catch.

If left to my own devices, I'm confident that I could lay down a one-tyre fire the entire distance of the car’s range.

You can almost use your right foot as a hydraulic handbrake. With full lock and just half throttle, you can get the car to rotate itself 90deg – almost a bit like a cut-price Mercedes G-Class G-turn.

Even in Normal mode, you need to be careful on slippery surfaces, with no electronic carabiners keeping you locked in place. This software was developed in-house and I reckon the people who did it know how to drive.

RIDE & HANDLING

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If things do get away from you, it's delightfully easy to collect. The steering - all original - is still fantastically light.

Often in road tests, you read something along the lines of ‘this driving mode adds heft to the steering without actually making communication any better’.

This MX-5 is the opposite: the steering through that thin-rimmed wheel is delightfully light yet offers so much communication.

Weight gain is kept to a minimum. Electrogenic reckons the electrification process adds only 100kg, bringing total weight to just about 1100kg. This is key to how this car handles.

It really is much the same as a Mk1 MX-5. The weight split is still roughly 50:50 front to rear, it still flows and breathes with the road like any good sports car and its change of direction is beautifully weighted still.

The big thing we have to talk about here is once again how the powertrain does affect things. The power-to-weight ratio is better in this Electrogenic car than in the original (145bhp per tonne, compared with 140bhp per tonne). 

In a Mk1 MX-5, I could use just a dash of trailing throttle to steer more tightly into a turn. With the Electrogenic one (especially in Sport mode), I needed to be very mindful that when I got back on the throttle I wasn’t using a malleable four-cylinder engine within a rev band; I was using something much harder to modulate, with an awful lot more torque.

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

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Charging is done via a CCS socket. It takes 45 minutes to fill up the battery from 10-80% via a rapid charger. It will charge 10-80% in five hours via an AC wallbox.

The stated 160-mile range figure is from mixed real -world driving. Around town, using Eco mode, Electrogenic reckons you could eke out maybe 200 miles.

At motorway speeds in the winter, expect a good deal less than 160.

Drivers should expect efficiency of between 3 and 4mpkWh.

VERDICT

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This is a niche product. It isn't the only car its owner has access to. And a lot of the interest (and there has been a lot of interest) Electrogenic has had has come from America.

I could imagine it being absolutely outstanding as a cars-and-coffee thing. Something special, fun, low-maintenance and with an 'if you know, you know' vibe to it.

It’s a hoot to pilot, too. The mapping on the drive modes is superb, if not aided by the eco tyres my test car was wearing.

I bet you could sense this paragraph coming as soon as you clicked the link, so let’s address the big but: the price. The question absolutely everyone has asked me so far. 

Electrogenic hasn’t confirmed pricing yet, and it’s hard to gauge, because a lot of it is very custom. But I would expect it to start from around £35,000, sans car.

You could buy seven or eight nice Mk1s for that money. Or something like a Porsche Boxster for the weekend and a Fiat 500e for commuting. Or any number of alternatives, really.

But realistically, Electrogenic MX-5 won't be used as one-car solutions. They're play things for the well-off, much like a classic car. This certainly looks and feels like one. But I sure do miss the zing of a DOHC engine and the click-clack of a manual ‘box.

Murray Scullion

Murray Scullion
Title: Digital editor

Murray has been a journalist for more than a decade. During that time he’s written for magazines, newspapers and websites, but he now finds himself as Autocar’s digital editor.

He leads the output of the website and contributes to all other digital aspects, including the social media channels, podcasts and videos. During his time he has reviewed cars ranging from £50 - £500,000, including Austin Allegros and Ferrari 812 Superfasts. He has also interviewed F1 megastars, knows his PCPs from his HPs and has written, researched and experimented with behavioural surplus and driverless technology.

Murray graduated from the University of Derby with a BA in Journalism in 2014 and has previously written for Classic Car Weekly, Modern Classics Magazine, buyacar.co.uk, parkers.co.uk and CAR Magazine, as well as carmagazine.co.uk.