Trendsetter
Mazda on different EV path
If it looks like a Mazda CX-30 and feels like a Mazda CX-30 . . . it’s not necessarily a Mazda CX-30. The car you see here is a Technology Prove-out Vehicle (TPV). On top it’s a CX-30, but underneath it’s Mazda’s first-ever production pure-electric car, set for launch next year. So it’s actually an e-TPV.
Mazda is famously ambivalent about EVs, arguing that on a ‘‘well to wheel’’ (from materials/production to end of life) basis it’s more environmentally effective to improve combustion engine technology.
But needs must. In this case the need is looming emissions targets across the world.
Europe is phasing in a 95g/km limit (that’s about 4.1 litres per
100km for a petrol vehicle) from next year towards 2021, with heavy penalties for those companies that can’t comply. Japan has a long-term vision to cut greenhouse gas by
90 per cent by 2050. There are New Energy Vehicle policies coming for China.
Plug-in vehicles have to be in the mix for companies to meet mandated green goals. In Europe for example, EVs gain ‘‘Super Credits’’ from next year – a single model counting as two vehicles towards average fleet emissions.
Mazda has a ‘‘multi-solution approach’’ that will include hybrid and rotary-engine range-extender models.
But the first plug-in product is a pure-EV, or Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) if you like.
There’s a lot we don’t know about this new model yet: like what type of vehicle it will be, performance statistics and projected range.
But we’ve driven it anyway, in e-TPV form. It’s based on a Mazdaspecific BEV platform and will be front-drive, with larger variations on the architecture (and AWD, possibly even RWD) to come later.
Will it surprise you to learn Mazda is doing things a little bit differently to other companies?
In a world where everybody is obsessed with increasing EV range, Mazda has commissioned a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) from science journal Sustainability that argues smaller batteries result in significantly lower CO emissions than larger ones, once you factor in materials extraction and production. More of that well-to-wheel logic.
So the new Mazda EV has a rather modest 35.5kWh battery – smaller than the recently upgraded Hyundai Ioniq (38.3kWh) or Nissan Leaf
(40kWh) and a whole lot less than New Zealand’s best-selling BEV, the Hyundai Kona (64kWh).
Outputs are 105kW/265Nm and DC fast-charging is via a CHAdeMo connection, as favoured by Japanese EV makers.
The Sustainability report suggests that with a 160,000km battery swap over, a 35.5kWh EV has the same LCA environmental impact as a diesel-engined Mazda3. A 95kWh EV is substantially higher.
Mazda isn’t talking range or even battery supplier detail at present, but if it’s a compact vehicle then
250-300km on a full charge would be a ballpark figure.
We drove the Mazda e-TPV in Norway, home of delicious salmon and a new-car market that’s now
50 per cent EV, thanks to generous subsidies – and even heavier taxes on petrol and diesel cars.
It was a quick spin to be sure: less than an hour around a lakeside road, with a loop of highway and motorway running thrown in. But
still a good mix of roads, including some hillwork and hairpin corners.
Mazda engineers tend to get a bit ethereal when talking about vehicle dynamics: lots of talk about ‘‘humancentred development’’ and ‘‘inertia tensor’’. But the upshot is that the emphasis is on a natural, fluid driving experience – even if it means going against automotive fashion.
Not for Mazda the EV ‘‘one-pedal driving’’ favoured by BMW, Hyundai and Nissan, where the off-throttle drag from high regeneration slows and even stops the vehicle without the need for braking.
Mazda argues that’s an awkward movement (throttle backwards but inertia forwards) and that using the brake is a more natural motion to slow the car.
The company calls its EV throttle the Electric Motor Pedal, to differentiate it from those regenbiased systems.
There’s a similar ethos in the way acceleration is delivered. It’s less about the novelty-jolt of EV torque and more about imparting a feeling of linearity and communication to the driver.
Among current EVs I’d rate the Hyundai Kona Electric as having the most ‘‘natural’’ feeling acceleration; but in TPV form the Mazda feels even better.
Sound plays a part. Mazda is still deciding on the final audio mix, but the TPV serves up a subtle soundtrack (partly amplified electric-motor noises, partly generated) that grows stronger and more urgent as the torque increases.
Among the many things Mazda won’t yet say is how much heavier the EV will be over a comparable combustion-engine car. ‘‘About three people’’ was the best I could get. Make of that what you will.
Weight helps ride, of course. But handling gets help from Mazda’s proprietary G-Vectoring Control (GVC) system, which is even more effective in an EV than a petrol or diesel car.
As with existing GVC models, the system imperceptibly reduces torque as you turn into a corner to stabilise the car and improve steering precision.
But with the EV, the very-finetuning possible with an electric motor means a tiny torque increase can be applied on the way out of a corner to shift weight to the outsiderear. Similar to a torque-vectoring system, but without the aggression and working even at very low speed.
The EV-GVC can also do its thing when the car is going downhill on zero throttle, making tiny variations in torque to stabilise the vehicle as the steering wheel is turned.
Mazda says the EV definitely won’t be an electric CX-30; it will have unique styling and packaging. All will be revealed at the Tokyo Motor Show next month.
But given the use of the CX-30 as a base for the e-TPV, including a carryover 18-inch wheel and tyre package (the kind of detail that Mazda is usually very fussy about) and current buyer tastes around the world, don’t be surprised if it’s a compact SUV. If so, a price point around $65k would make sense.
But that’s guesswork for now. More to come next month and the finished product will be a late-2020 or early-2021 model for New Zealand.