The electric Mazda MX-30 has been hamstrung since it was launched, with its paltry 124-mile range, awkward coach doors and cramped rear cabin overshadowing most of its attributes. So it should come as no surprise that after just four years on sale, the brand has quietly axed its first and only electric car.
The Mazda MX-30 made its world debut at the 2019 Tokyo Motor Show, and despite its name suggesting that it was in some way related to the MX-5 roadster, underneath the unorthodox crossover was based on the more conventional, combustion-powered Mazda CX-30.
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Mazda’s explanation was that it uses ‘MX’ for the names of cars that do things their own way and “convey new values without being tied to the conventional ideas of the present”. The ‘30’ just indicates its size and position in the brand’s line-up.
One of the more eye-brow raising decisions Mazda made was fitting the MX-30 with a rather small 35.5kWh battery, which would provide about 100 miles of range in the real world. The thinking was that this size of battery would reduce weight for better handling and mean fewer CO2 emissions from the car’s production and across its lifecycle, but still provide a sufficient range.
