Mazda has finally produced an EV with usable range – but all is not as it seems

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The Mazda 6e feels like something of a forced hand for the Japanese manufacturer.

Many of us would love for Mazda to merrily keep making MX-5s and a supporting cast of sensibly sized hatchbacks with zingy petrol engines and manual gearboxes, maybe with a couple of straight-six diesels thrown in. But the powers that be have decreed otherwise. Whether it wants to or not, it needs a credible EV, (the MX-30 has charm, but not much else)

If you’re BMW, you can counter any legislative flip-flopping by betting on all the horses: petrol, diesel, hybrid, electric, and tick off hydrogen just in case. But Mazda just doesn’t have the engineering might to do all of it well. Whether it wants to or not, it needs a credible EV (the MX-30 crossover has charm but not much else), so for its new 6e, it has turned to its Chinese manufacturing partner Changan and Mazdafied its Deepal SL03.

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DESIGN & STYLING

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It must be said that design-wise, it started in a pretty good place, because unless you’re already aware of the SL03 (and if you live in Europe, why would you be?), you couldn’t tell this wasn’t originally conceived as a Mazda. With the long, flat bonnet, flowing sides and elegant silhouette, it looks every bit the natural successor to the much-loved third-generation Mazda 6 saloon that went off sale in 2023.

The way the signature Mazda grille has been integrated is pretty neat as well: the lights that peek through the relatively flat bumper create the illusion of a more three-dimensional piece. At the back, there’s a deployable spoiler and four round lights that reference other current Mazdas, as well as the FD-gen RX-7.

Reading through the spec sheet makes you scratch your head a bit. There are two battery options: a big NMC one (80kWh, 343 miles of WLTP range) and a smaller LFP one (68.8kWh, 298 miles). Pretty standard stuff, but weirdly the Long Range model charges much slower (90kW versus 165kW) and has less power (241bhp versus 255bhp) from its single rear motor.

A 45-mile range difference is not insignificant – particularly since Mercedes will now sell you a CLA with 483 miles of range. But given the difference in charging speed and the fact that LFP batteries don’t mind being charged to a 100% on a regular basis, you wonder why anyone would go for the more expensive one.

Mazda must realise this, because the car we got to drive on the launch was a Standard Range one.

INTERIOR

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Open the pleasingly weighty door with its frameless window and what faces you is clearly a big departure from existing Mazdas. Instead of an array of buttons, a small screen and lots of interesting shapes, you get a massive touchscreen on an otherwise fairly plain dashboard. Judging by the new CX-5 SUV, which is a complete Mazda original, the brand is clearly happy to go down this route, but whichever your preference, it must be said that something of what normally sets Mazda apart is being lost.

To its credit, you can see where it’s put the effort in to differentiate the 6e from the source material. In the Takumi Plus trim of my test car, there's lots of nice caramel-coloured leather and suede, which gives a classy feel. Standard Takumi trim gets synthetic leather in either beige or black.

Conversely, being able to see what Mazda has managed to change means you can also clearly spot what couldn’t be altered. This is exemplified – stick with me here – by typography. Mazda has quite a distinctive, classical font that it uses across its website, literature and the infotainment of its ‘own’ cars. In the 6e, it pops up here and there but not consistently. Instead, it’s mixed with more generic letters and numbers.

All the screens feel very Chinese. Like in many BYDs, Jaecoos, GWMs and the like, a lot of information, widgets, icons and graphics are thrown at you with little sense of hierarchy, which makes it all harder to use on the move than it should be. I’ve tried much worse; there’s Apple CarPlay, the climate controls are in a permanent toolbar at the bottom of the screen and it’s pretty responsive, but none of it is particularly pleasing. Mazda likes to talk about craftsmanship, but this gives off cheap Android phone vibes.

The driving position reminds me of the Genesis Electrified G80 in that you’re slightly too high in relation to the controls, with your head in the rafters. But because there’s enough adjustability and a comfortable seat, you get used to it.

Rear seat passengers have ample knee room, but a high floor and a low roof mean it’s not as accommodating as it seems at first.

The boot is quoted at just 336 litres, although it seems like more, and there’s a 72-litre frunk with a handy fitted removable basket.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

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You don’t press a start button: you just get in, pull the knock-off last-gen Mercedes drive selector and go.

It doesn't feel especially quick and the accelerator is weirdly non-linear. Just a few degrees of the pedal give you about a quarter of the power and there’s a delay between matting the pedal and getting full power.

There’s a free-wheeling mode and a couple of light regen settings, but these also have a delay to them.

Fortunately, the brake pedal is easy to modulate, so as long as you back off the regen, it's easy enough to drive smoothly.

RIDE & HANDLING

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There was clearly a limit to how much the Mazda engineers could do with the chassis. You might say the ride is faintly reminiscent of the CX-60 SUV in the way the long-wave motions are fairly settled and a little wooden and abrupt over corrugations, but then that’s not entirely a compliment.. It’s quiet at a cruise, though, and rear-wheel drive promises some dynamism.

Which doesn’t fully materialise. The steering has two settings: eerily light and disconnected, or heavier yet slightly gloopy, and with no more feedback. Weirdly, it’s always quite heavy at parking speeds. Body roll is present but well contained and the balance is okay, though the Michelin e-Primacy eco tyres are pretty vocal when you pitch it into a bend. The steering means you’re generally disinclined to, anyway.

As is the way with Chinese cars, there are reams of confusingly named ADAS features, and turning any of them off means working your way through a menu. They’re not as intrusive as some, and on first impression the adaptive cruise control works fairly well, but the unholy trinity of lane keeping assistance, overspeed warning and driver monitoring still annoy.

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

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If the trip computer is to be believed, my test car returned 4.0mpkWh on a mixed drive. That’s pretty good, although Mazda says the usable battery capacity is ‘around 66kWh’, so that still only makes for 260 miles of range. I’m also slightly sceptical, since the WLTP claim is only 3.7mpkWh, and I don’t think I’ve ever driven another EV that beats its claimed efficiency on anything approaching a representative run.

We will give it the benefit of the doubt until we can do a more thorough test. It will be a while before we get our hands on a 6e in the UK. Even though the car has been in production for a while already (for the Chinese market), right-hand-drive production is only coming later, so UK cars are planned in the first half of 2026.

Naturally, it’s much too early for prices. In Germany, though, it undercuts the (much longer-range) Volkswagen ID 7, Mercedes CLA EQ and Polestar 2 but not the standard-range Tesla Model 3.

VERDICT

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That sounds about right, because while Mazda has done a decent job at putting a classy Japanese veneer over an otherwise fairly average and generic electric saloon, it couldn’t completely cover up the lumps and bumps of the base car, which doesn’t do anything especially well compared to a talented field of rivals.

Illya Verpraet

Illya Verpraet Road Tester Autocar
Title: Road Tester

As a road tester, Illya drives everything from superminis to supercars, and writes reviews and comparison tests, while also managing the magazine’s Drives section. Much of his time is spent wrangling the data logger and wielding the tape measure to gather the data for Autocar’s in-depth instrumented road tests.

He loves cars that are fun and usable on the road – whether piston-powered or electric – or just cars that are very fit for purpose. When not in test cars, he drives an R53-generation Mini Cooper S.