Mazda Australia’s embracing PHEVs, but is it too late?

October 28, 2022October 31, 2022 Iain Curry 4636 Views mazda

Plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) are polarising things. Depending on who you talk to they’re the best of both worlds or the worst of both worlds.

Positively put, they offer emissions-free electric driving most of the time, but a petrol engine backup when you need it – very handy, thanks. This, it appears, is of mighty appeal to Mazda Australia as it embarks on a potential plug-in onslaught, starting with its CX-60 PHEV in the first half of 2023.

Mazda CX-60 PHEV, due here in the first half of 2023, put could be priced up to $80,000

Do Australians wants PHEVs, EVs or both?

But is Mazda about to go big on PHEVs as markets – including Australia – increasingly want to swerve the half-way house and commit to a full battery electric car?

Mazda Australia’s marketing director Alastair Doak told EVcentral he believes Australian driving conditions suit PHEVs well.

“I think it’s a viable medium term technology,” he explained. “As we keep saying, we still don’t have the infrastructure in Australia (for EVs). And we have the vast distances, and people do drive their cars into the countryside, to their holiday house, wherever it is in Australia. That maybe isn’t replicated as much in Europe and other places.

“So if you can use your PHEV during the week, in the large cities, and basically stay in EV mode the whole time, then on the weekend you can go and drive into the country.”

CX-60 to lead a PHEV charge

Mr Doak said Mazda Australia was still working through pricing for the CX-60 mid-size SUV (it’ll be announced before year’s end) but we estimate the PHEV will likely cost between $70-80,000, due to its electrified drivetrain and high specification.

Compellingly, it’ll be the most powerful Mazda road car ever produced, with 2.5-litre petrol engine, 100kW electric motor and 17.8kWh lithium-ion battery giving a total system output of 241kW and 500Nm, and rapid 5.8-seconds 0-100kmh time.

We can safely assume the larger CX-70 (two rows of seats), CX-80 (three rows) and CX-90 (three rows) SUVs will also adopt PHEV powertrains, but it’s not something Mazda Australia would confirm. “We want to get CX-60 up and running first, then move on from there,” said Mr Doak. “As soon as we can we’ll talk about it (CX-70, CX-80 and CX-90), positive or negative.”

Mazda’s range is set to expand to include MX-70, MX-80 and MX-90 SUVs, likely with PHEV drivetrains

It’s no secret Mazda Australia has PHEVs front and centre in its multi drivetrain strategy. “No major brand has put this push into PHEV before… so we believe there is a market, and it’s a growing market,” Mazda Australia CEO Vinesh Bhindi told EVcentral earlier this year.

Mr Doak said Mazda Australia’s market research suggested PHEV interest levels was “higher than we first thought,” although “take-up would still be relatively modest.”

How are Mazda MX-30 EV sales?

Is having a single full battery electric vehicle in Mazda’s current lineup – the MX-30 E35 – enough? If Tesla sales and electric Hyundai/Kia/Mercedes/Porsche, et al. demand is anything to go by, this full EV stuff is the party to be at right now. Not least as the aforementioned brands are growing colder towards PHEVs.

“Part of the reason we brought in MX-30 EV was to give us a platform to educate our dealers on high voltage, battery and all that stuff,” said Mr Doak. “We want to encourage them to invest in the infrastructure at their dealership. We want our dealers to be more familiar with the technology.”

Mazda MX-30 Electric – has it proved too expensive and with not enough range to appeal to Australians?

Using the MX-30 EV as a ‘soft’ introduction for dealers and customers to get used to the idea does make sense. Only 100 of the Mazda EVs were brought into Australia, and Mr Doak said: “It’s a niche product, it’s doing the numbers and bubbling along and doing what we wanted.”

It’d be tough to imagine Mazda Australia admitting it, but perhaps criticism levelled at the MX-30 E35 (namely 224km not being enough range and $65,490 plus on-road costs proving too high a price) has put the brakes on making loud noises about future full electric product. Extolling the virtues of its incoming PHEVs makes more sense, you’d think.

At time of publication, on the Carsales website, 25 of the 100 MX-30 EVs brought into the country are up for sale.

Cheapest has 3790km on the clock and a price of $49,990 before on-roads. That’s over $15,000 less than the RRP for a new one to order, and before on-roads. The cheapest dealer demo is $58,490 drive-away with under 4000km showing.

Iain Curry

A motoring writer and photographer for two decades, Iain started in print magazines in London as editor of Performance BMW and features writer for BMW Car, GT Porsche and 4Drive magazines. His love of motor sport and high performance petrol cars was rudely interrupted in 2011 when he was one of the first journalists to drive BMW's 1 Series ActiveE EV, and has been testing hybrids, PHEVs and EVs for Australian newspapers ever since. Based near Noosa in Queensland, his weekly newspaper articles cover new vehicle reviews and consumer advice, while his photography is regularly seen on the pages of glossy magazines.

One thought on “Mazda Australia’s embracing PHEVs, but is it too late?”

Brian Wood
November 21, 2022 at 5:00 pm
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If pushed, I can put a positive spin on PHEVs. Batteries are expensive and a small ICE eases the ‘range anxiety’ at a lower cost. For most of us 50-60 km range is enough for the daily drive. If it comes at a lower vehicle cost than a big battery BEV, then, why not? You’re either carrying around a cheap ICE you don’t use, most of the time, or a big lump of expensive battery, you don’t use most of the time… Why not save some money?