Mazda MX-30 R-EV Exclusive Line review

Mazda MX-30 R-EV

Mazda MX-30 R-EV Exclusive Line review.

*****
For – lovely styling, great quality, nifty technology, terrific price.
Against – those rear doors, golf-phobic.
£38,150
Competition – PHEVs from Mercedes, Lexus, Audi, VW, Range Rover, BMW, Hyundai, Kia, Toyota and Suzuki.

“There is huge competition in the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) sector. My previous favourites the Toyota RAV4/Suzuki Across have to stand aside for the R-EV. It probably wins easily on price alone.”

I’d expected to fall for this version of the Mazda MX-30 because of its brave (or blind) loyalty to its traditional rotary engine technology, and my liking for the pure electric version’s looks. 

It didn’t disappoint.

The pure EV model failed because of its hopeless range. But switching from a big battery to a smaller one helped by a combustion engine, turned it into this extended-range version and allows Mazda to make use of its cute looks and user-friendly design.

The R-EV has added an 830cc rotary engine as a range-extender. Result? More than 50 miles of electric-only travel, and an end to range anxiety as it offers about 400 miles overall. The engine never powers the car directly. It’s always powered by the battery, which you can charge independently.

Mazda tried for years to make the rotary engine work and fought and beat most technical difficulties, but never conquered the lack of fuel efficiency. I can remember driving a surprisingly powerful Mazda RX-2 in the early 1970s in Brussels. This was an anonymous-looking little 4-seater, which produced much whispering power that raised the eyebrows of Porsche and Mercedes drivers as it blasted past them on Belgian and German motorways. (I was in my late 20s at the time; forgive me) Mazda last used a rotary engine in 2012 with the RX-8, after making about 2 million motors, but kept the technology for a rainy day, which has now arrived.

“Barely perceptively hums” 
The R-EV has satisfactory rather than mind-blowing performance. The build quality is apparent when you first hear a door clunk shut. The rear-hinged doors are a bit of a gimmick. Just to remind us they were in the RX-8? The boot was surprisingly small and anti-golf. Hard to believe that my Honda Jazz can take my golf bag east/west, but much bigger cars like this one require north/south loading and the rear seats to be folded down. The cabin is very attractive and user-friendly. You engage the regenerative braking with paddles behind the steering wheel. 

The rotary engine barely perceptively hums along when the computer decides to engage it. If you’re in electric mode, but accelerate sharply, the motor will kick in. I managed to connect my I-phone’s music to Apple Car Play, so that proves the computer systems are all very intuitive. The MX-30 R-EV is offered in three grades in the UK: Prime-Line, Exclusive Line and Makoto.  Prices start at £31,250.

When you get going, this is what happens, according to Mazda.

“There are three driving modes: Normal, EV and Charge. However the choice of mode does not affect maximum vehicle speed. “Normal” delivers electric drive as long as there’s enough battery charge. If more power is required than the battery level can deliver – when accelerating – the rotary engine generator will activate based on the degree of accelerator opening and supply the battery with more power.” 

“Drivers can turn EV mode on when they want to stay in electric drive for as long as possible. This mode will ensure the vehicle uses electric drive exclusively until the battery is completely drained. If the driver needs to accelerate suddenly, equivalent to the kick-down on a standard automatic, the rotary engine will activate and generate the power needed for the car to accelerate as powerfully as possible.” 

“Charge mode can be used to safeguard the necessary amount of battery for situations such as the need to save zero-emissions running for urban environments. Additionally, drivers have the option of setting the amount of battery charge they want to reserve in increments of 10%.” 

What to buy?
I couldn’t get close to the claimed 282.5 miles per gallon claimed, (under what weird formula isn’t explained) but that’s not important because if I used this car for my normal weekly motoring, I’d never use any petrol at all (a mere 76.7 mpg during my test week). That’s the beauty of the plug-in hybrid option. For normal driving, the car would effectively be an EV, but with the bonus that long journeys are just like a normal ICE vehicle, and about 400 miles will be possible at one go. You won’t have to slipstream the trucks or stop every 150 miles or so as you’d have to even in a Tesla. My Tesla Model 3 data shows high-speed cruising range of nearly 240, but you’d start to get nervous at under 100 miles.

It still amazes me when I hear EVangelists like green lobby group Transport & Environment say that PHEVs shouldn’t be allowed. Some corporate users can’t be bothered to charge the battery because they have no incentive to save money on fuel. Indeed, if used irresponsibly, with the extra weight PHEVs are the worst of both worlds for fuel economy. But denying low mileage drivers (the great majority, I’d argue) the benefit of this great flexibility makes no sense. The critics have convinced the EU and the U.K. because new ones will be banned by 2035. 

(But China’s BYD, the world’s leading EV maker, is still making huge numbers of PHEVs as well as EVs. Maybe in the long-term common sense will prevail.)

There is huge range of competition in the PHEV sector. My previous favourites the Toyota RAV4/Suzuki Across have to stand aside for the R-EV. It probably wins easily on price alone.   

Mazda MX-30 R-EV

Mazda MX-30 R-EV