DOORS OF PERCEPTION
REAR ACCESS NOT ENTIRELY AN OPENAND-SHUT CASE
THE LADY WALKING her doe-eyed Labrador paused to ask me a simple car question, but I was momentarily (almost) too thick to realise we had a misunderstanding. “What sort of range do you get from that?” she wanted to know. I was about to answer, “Around 500km, depending on how hard I thrash it...” when I realised where our wires had become crossed. “Ah, you think this is an electric car, right?” I asked her. She pointed to the small, blue triangular decal on the numberplate with the letters ‘EV’, and shot back, “Isn’t it?” I had to explain that the EV sticker is actually a warning designed to advise emergency service workers responding to a crash that the car is equipped with a battery pack that may need to be disconnected to prevent a potential fire. Any car with even a mild-hybrid system like the 24v set-up on the MX-30, with its integrated starter generator, is therefore classified as an ‘electric vehicle’. To my mind, an electric car needs to have a motor capable of it moving using battery power alone. I’d argue that Toyota hybrids, which typically have an EV capability of maybe 800 meters at jogging pace, kinda qualify, but only just. The MX-30’s Skyactiv-G powertrain has no such ability. The 24v system powering the starter/generator unit is claimed to provide a small torque boost in the step-off phase (so small that the quoted 200Nm peak is no different to that of the regular, nonmild-hybrid 2.0-litre engine used elsewhere in the Mazda 3 and CX-30 ranges). I haven’t driven the MX30 back-to-back with a CX-30, but I don’t reckon my car feels any perkier in terms of torque response. This is an engine that’s flexible enough, but needs a decent bootful of throttle and ample revs if you want to do anything other than waft around. The mild-hybrid system is also claimed to aid the stop-start function, allowing longer running
of the engine’s ancillaries while the car is switched off at traffic lights. Official evidence of this effectiveness? Well, my MX-30 has a combined ADR consumption of 6.4L/100km, versus 6.5 for the 2.0-litre engine in the front-drive CX-30 line-up. Yes, folks, a saving of 100ml of fuel for every 100km travelled. Hmm. As for keeping the engine off while waiting at lights, the maximum duration I recorded (with air-con and audio system running) was a mere 24 seconds, so way less than the period for which we all sit at most red-light intersections. Look, I get it; of course car companies have to explore every technology to reduce consumption and emissions. But my experience says that the mild-hybrid approach on the MX-30 is pretty ineffective, as I’m currently burning around 8.6L/100km in mostly urban driving. So in this spec, as I had to explain to my dog-walking friend, the MX-30 sure ain’t no low-emissions EV. Ah, but it will trade places with one, though. Next month I’ll be running an MX-30 E35 Astina; fundamentally the same car, same equipment, but powered by a single front-mounted electric motor and a small 36kWh battery pack. This is the car the MX-30 was intended to be all along, and I have a pretty fair idea of how transformational the powertrain switch will be. But there’s a whopping $25K premium for the EV, so the two cars are not remotely in the same price segment. Same rear doors, of course, and while that’s not a big deal for me because I don’t regularly carry anyone in the back, the last couple of months have proved that going ‘freestyle’ really does bring some fundamental practicality issues. The fact my test car arrived with a very faint crease in the trailing edge of the front passenger door points to the first problem. For anyone unfamiliar with them – kids; your drunk mates – it’s possible to first close the front door, then try and close the rear door, at which point the bulky latch mechanism goes whack into the edge of the front door, as evidenced on my car from a previous user. Then there’s this scenario: your passenger is still seated and belted in the front, and you open their door to allow the rear door to open. But that rear door houses the seatbelt mechanism for the front occupant, so suddenly your startled passenger is being garrotted by their belt. No a great relationship-builder, trust me...