Mazda gets serious about EVs in Australia: 2026 Mazda 6e electric sedan to launch by mid-year priced under Tesla Model 3

Mazda is set to launch its first serious attempt at an electric vehicle for the Australian market in the unusual and potentially unloved shape of a rear-wheel drive family sedan, the Mazda 6e.

While Australians expect and prefer their EVs to come shaped like SUVs, most often like a Tesla Model Y, Mazda’s first foray into the mass market is an admittedly very attractive sedan (well five-door hatch that looks like a sedan), likely to arrive with a tempting starting price of around $50,000 when it goes on sale in Q2 next year.

Publicly, Mazda is only saying the 6e will be “under $55,000”, but we’re tipping the price could even sneak under $50,000.

READ MORE: Mazda CX-5 Hybrid is just the beginning as brand vows to “get hybrids through everything”
READ MORE: Revealed! New 2026 Mazda CX-5 medium SUV breaks cover, but where’s the hybrid to fight Toyota RAV4?
READ MORE: Sales sensation! Electric Mazda EZ-60 is an immediate hit in China, but would it succeed in Australia?

Against more popularly-shaped competitors, it will need to do something special – like undercut the cheapest $54,900 Tesla Model 3 – to gain attention and sales.

The Mazda 6e is a looker, inside and out, with a slick body style featuring a rear light cluster that harks back to the legendary Mazda RX-8 rotary-engined sports car.

The interior looks standard modern EV – giant touch screen, inherent minimalism – but features properly premium materials and an air of quality.

The quality of this particular Mazda will be a talking point, however, as it is the result of a joint-venture between intensely Japanese Mazda (and fear not, Japan still isn’t interested in EVs, so much so that the local market won’t even get the 6e, despite it being available in right-hand drive) and Chongqing Changan Automobile Co. Ltd.

To put that more simply, while it wears a Mazda badge, the 6e is closely related to the Deepal L07 sedan, and the Deepal S07 SUV, that latter already sold in Australia.

Mazda Australia managing director Vinesh Bindhi said he had no concerns about the 6e containing Chinese engineering, and pointed out that work is currently being done on locally tuning its suspension for Australian conditions.

“Well, it’s a partnership that Mazda has had over 20 years with Changan Automobile, so there’s a lot of Mazda input, and in particular with this car, the Mazda R&D team in Europe played a very big part in doing what they need to do for their market, which is more in line with where we are,” Bindhi said.

“So we are very confident of the product and customers will see the Mazda quality, the Mazda engagement, the Mazda support and the Mazda reliability.”

Mazda Australia also insists that the 6e is more than a toe in the water. It is – finally – the beginning of a serious move towards electrification across the range.

This is partly being driven by customer demand but, it seems, largely by government policy. Bindhi pointed to the recent announcement of a 2035 target on CO2 and added that “I suspect the transport industry will get a significant share of that task”.

“I would expect the Government would deploy strategies and tactics to support consumers going towards more electrified power, and we think that’s where we have to be going,” he added.

As far as the appeal of a rear-drive sedan with a 190kW e-motor, 78kWh LFP battery and a claimed driving range of more than 500km to Australian customers, Mazda says it still hears that demand from its customers.

That particularly applies to older buyers who grew up driving sedans and would like to do so again.

Bindhi was asked whether the related Mazda EZ-60 SUV would be appealing as an option for this market, and he responded that “appealing would be an understatement”.

“In terms of the SUV, we still have to build a business case, but we can only build a business case after two sort of critical points; the first one is that Mazda corporation needs to confirm it’s a global car, so it’s available to all markets, and the second would be that it’s available in right-hand drive,” Bindhi explained.

“Once you get over those two, we would look at a business case and then proceed from there.”

A range extender version of the 6e is also not available for Australia at the moment because it is left-hand drive and only offered in China, where this car is known as the EZ-6.

The 6e is Mazda Australia’s second EV following on from the memorable scissor-door MX-30, with its high price, miniscule driving and range and – not unrelated – miniscule sales.