Mazda 6e Review: NZ Exclusive First Drive

Say hello to the Mazda 6e liftback, the Japanese manufacturer's long-overdue return to the full-electric market.

It’s been 5 years since the brand’s first attempt at a mass produced EV, the MX-30, hit our shores. But what you see here is a much more advanced and, to be frank, compelling effort at producing a global EV that can compete with its now-established rivals. 

First time around, Mazda tackled the challenge of developing an EV alone, designing and building the MX-30 in Japan. This time, Mazda has teamed up to bring this its new generation EV to life. The Mazda 6e is the first car we’ve seen produced in partnership with Chinese manufacturer Changan Automobiles, a company who built their first car in 1959 and whom Mazda have a 20-year working relationship with.

However, don’t think for a moment that the Mazda 6e is just some rebadged Chinese car from another manufacturer you’ve never heard of. Mazda was involved in the development of the 6e’s platform from the outset. While Changan have taken care of battery development and much of the 6e’s touchscreen hardware and technology, Mazda have developed their own exterior, interior, shaped the operating system and most importantly, tuned the ride, handling and steering specifically for European and Western markets like New Zealand and Australia.

The Changan Mazda partnership allows the Japanese carmaker to leverage Chinese expertise in battery and EV mass production, freeing up Mazda to stick to their strong suit; ride characteristics, styling and interior design. On paper, this should be the best of both worlds - Chinese EV production with state-of-the-art battery tech and Mazda’s ability of making a car that’s actually fun to drive.

We head out on the narrow city streets, 120km/h motorways and twisting hills of Barcelona, Spain, to find out.

How much does the Mazda 6e cost?

We don’t know yet and we won’t for a few months. The full range has been announced for China, most of Europe and our mates across the ditch in Australia. All three regions give us a good hint at what to expect.

In China and Europe, there are three battery sizes with two different chemical makeups available, while Australia will only get the big 78kWh Lithium-Iron Phosphate battery option. I expect that’s what will provide the juice for New Zealand models once our range and specification are announced.

In Australia there will be two models - the AU$49,990 6e GT and AU$52,990 6e Atenza - that are only differentiated by interior materials.

For the sake of argument and this review, I’m going to consider the European-spec Mazda 6e tested here (Takumi Plus Long Range, to give its full title) as a NZ $60,000 - NZ$65,000 vehicle. Assumptions are okay right, what could possibly go wrong?

What’s under the bonnet?

A decent frunk, big enough for your charging cable, 2 boxes of wine and 2 full shopping bags. I was in Europe, boxes of wine are a unit of measurement, okay.

However, under that you won’t find any electric motors. The 6e is Mazda’s first new rear-wheel drive model since the RX-8 in 2013 and there are currently no plans for an all-wheel drive version.

Our test car was the European 80kWh Lithium-Ion battery version with a single electric motor at the rear axle delivering 180kW and 320Nm. Acceleration from 0-100km/h is rated at 7.9 seconds and top speed 175km/h. Models sold in Australia can do the same sprint in 7.35 seconds. Here’s hoping we can match that down the line.

This particular battery is capable of DC fast charging up to 195kW meaning a re-charge from 30-80% is possible in as little as 15 minutes.

What’s the Mazda 6e like inside?

Unlike any Mazda we’ve seen yet.

Granted, the materials and visual design are unmistakably Mazda. The seats are very comfortable and the leather they’re wrapped in feels premium, there’s even suede on the top of the door cards. Mazda has a knack of making their interiors feel premium beyond their price point and the 6e is no different.

But to do anything beyond sitting in it? That’s a different story.

The partnership between Changan and Mazda is most heavily weighted towards China in the touchscreen controls. Everything apart from the windows, hazard lights, gear selector (mounted behind the wheel), adaptive cruise on/off and indicators are controlled by the central 14.6-inch touchscreen display. 

So want to adjust the wipers? Touchscreen. Adjust the wing mirrors? Touchscreen. Change to a radio station that isn't preset? Yep, touchscreen. It sounds crazy yet in practice, it works better than you’d think. 

There’s a dedicated menu running along the bottom of the screen that’s always there allowing you to quickly adjust cabin temperature, turn the heated seats on, control fan speed or access the drive menus. Once I knew where they all were, I got used to it much quicker than anticipated. 

Those wipers and mirror adjustments I talked about earlier, too, are easily accessed and when you think about it, are items you normally set and forget for most drivers. The wipers live in auto mode, on the other hand you might have to do a quick tutorial to explain the mirrors when you lend your 6e to a mate.

The menu running along the bottom is also customisable, as are also two ‘Favourite’ shortcut buttons on the steering wheel you can preset to access menus or modes you use regularly. It also helps that the screen is high definition and very responsive to react when touched. It’s powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip faster than some people's smartphones and I wouldn’t want it any slower with this kind of control layout.

Speaking of screens, the driver's 10.25-inch instrument cluster is also fully digital and all 6es have a head-up display that dwarfs the driver's readout by adjusting it in the …. yeah, touchscreen display.

This could be a lot for some customers to deal with, but it has to be said that the feedback and direction given to Changan Mazda by their colleagues at Mazda Japan and Europe have made this one of the easiest touchscreen system I’ve ever used in a Chinese-made EV. The fact I could use it easily on the move in less than a day is something I didn’t expect in a left-hand drive car.

That’s enough screen chat. There’s more to this cabin than pixels. As I said earlier, the seats are comfortable though the driving position in the 6e is a little higher than I expected. The seat is electronically adjustable, as is the passenger side, and headroom isn’t an issue but I’d like it to drop into the chassis a bit more. Maybe that hints at how this liftback is tuned, comfort over performance.

Below the screen is a wireless phone charger and storage space between the front row passengers with USB-C outlets. The central armrest is also wrapped in leather and opens to reveal another large storage bin. Our tester was also fitted with a 14-speaker Sony sound system which sounded great playing Kiwi rock while I was driving on the other side of the planet.

In the back row, there’s plenty of space for full size adults. Despite being a liftback with a slanting roofline head, shoulder and knee room is no issue for anyone under 6'4"ish. Because it’s an EV, the rear floor is flat but a hump in the middle seat means two-wide is the best option for adult 6e travel while enjoying the panoramic glass roof.

The boot is electronically operated and reveals 466 litres of space. Combine that with the 72 litre frunk and the 6e pips the last Mazda 6 sedan’s boot capacity of 477 litres.

What’s the Mazda 6e like to drive?

I have to admit, I was a bit worried about this part. I read and watched Paul’s ahead of time and was concerned I’d find the 6e a bit soft as well. 

That didn’t turn out to be the case. On the move the 6e feels like … well, a rear-wheel drive, electric Mazda 6. In my book, that’s no bad thing.

I do get where Paul is coming from, though. Around town and at slower speeds the Mazda 6e absorbs bumps and uneven surfaces really well. It turns out the potholes in Barcelona are pretty much the same as Auckland, as were the amount of tarmac changes on a single piece of road. None of this concerned the Mazda under 60km/h. Props to Mazda Europe who tuned the suspension for 6es coming to New Zealand, they certainly know what they’re doing.

Where my experience differs from Paul is when I gained speed. You can travel anywhere from 90-120km/h on the motorways of Barcelona and if anything, the 6e I drove felt better at these higher speeds. The car feels light at the wheel and even though this was my first left-hand experience on-road, it never felt floaty in the lane. Being on the wrong side of the car and road, that sensation would have ended the review right there. At speed, noise and vibration inside the cabin was minimal and among the best I’ve experienced in the EV sedan segment.

The 6e has three drive modes - Normal, Sport and Individual. In the latter you can turn up the regenerative braking to its highest setting. In that mode, I found it wasn’t quite forceful enough to be a genuine one-pedal driving EV, requiring a light touch of the brake to bring it to a stop before overrunning a intersection. ‘Normal’ would give you a balance of range efficiency, performance, standard steering weight and regenerative braking.

‘Sport’ is what I really wanted to try out and did so on the twisting lanes of rural Barcelona. This weighted up the steering resistance, strengthened regenerative braking and allows you to deploy as much energy as the system can muster.Again, the driving position feels a bit too high for a low-slung liftback, but it did help me place the car easier in unfamiliar territory. Regardless, the chassis responded well to ‘spirited’ driving in the twisties and the 6e's road manners were well-sorted on some very narrow and undulating backroads. The 6e I was driving weighed just over 2 tonnes and the suspension and brakes had no issues dealing with all that mass. It was genuinely enjoyable to drive on a challenging road and the 6e never got away from me. 

That’s mainly down to the 6e’s straight-line performance. With 180kW, 320Nm and a claimed 0-100km/h time of 7.9 seconds, this isn’t an EV that violently forces you back into the seat or scares the life out of your passengers. It also means it’s not really an EV that you can steer from the rear axle. It will slide, for sure, but it won't lay down black lines or over-rotate on you.

We’ve become numb to some bonkers 0-100km/h times in the EV space, but after 400km of driving I found that’s not what the 6e is all about. It’s much too refined for that carry on. Where the 6e shines is as a comfortable daily commuter or highway cruiser.

It does have a handy 11.6 metre turning circle, identical to the Tesla Model 3. But any Model 3, including an entry-level Premium Rear-Wheel Drive, will leave it behind under acceleration. 

That won’t matter to everyone, some people are more economically minded than others. So it’s telling that after my 400kms of highway, city and ‘spirited’ backroad driving that I actually bettered this 6e’s WLTP energy consumption rating of 15.9kWh/100km, finishing my time with the Mazda at 15.6kWh/100km.

What do you get?

Again, we can’t confirm the full list yet, this is pure speculation. But after scouring spec sheets from three different continents, here are some highlights we expect to see once the Mazda 6e lands in New Zealand.

Likely standard Mazda 6e features:

• Rear-wheel drive
• >500km WLTP range
• 19-inch wheels
• Automatic LED headlights
• Rear LED tail lights
• Rain-sensing wipers
• 14.6-inch touchscreen infotainment display
• 10.25-inch driver instrument display
• Head-up display
• Keyless entry
• Power tailgate
• 360-degree camera

CarExpert’s take on the Mazda 6e

Our first taste of the Mazda 6e was promising.

We’ve waited some time for Mazda to re-enter the EV space and a lot has changed in the market since their last effort, but it looks like it could be worth the wait. 

While I found the ride and handling to be much-improved over CarExpert Australia’s pre-production experience, it’s worth noting that the 6e is no sports sedan. Although that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun to drive. 

Some EVs throw performance at you, seemingly in the hopes you’ll miss the iffy interior fitment, unresolved suspension or orange peel paint. Mazda has gone about the 6e in a different way.

They could have made it faster if they wanted, that I have no doubt. What they’ve done instead is create an everyday family car that’s fun to drive and efficient while doing so. It's personality is friendly and inviting, like an old friend with nothing to prove.

And then there’s the looks. Both the Mazda 6e’s and the ones it garnered in Barcelona. The Spanish noticed this car. Whether it was in a rural town or in the city itself, people stopped to stare at the 6e and when they did, they smiled. Even Mazda’s European staff that’ve seen it for months now.

We don’t know the final spec Kiwis will get to drive for themselves, but I already look forward to taking the new Mazda 6e on a winding yet comfortable New Zealand road trip.