Mazda MX-30 electric SUV price and specs

Mazda will bring the electric MX-30 to Australia in an initial run of only 100 units, all of which will be the top-spec E35 Astina, priced from $65,490.

While Astina denotes the high level of trim found in this variant of MX-30, E35 signifies the specific powertrain, a 107kW/271Nm EV motor at the front wheels, using a 35.5kWh lithium-ion battery pack.

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Mazda says this will deliver a 200km driving range, which comes down to the brand’s ‘well-to-wheel’ philosophy it says minimises environmental impact from the resources used in construction right through to the usage, charging, and eventual battery disposal.

At a home power-point, Mazda says the MX-30 will charge from 20-80 per cent in around nine hours, though that time drops to three hours using an AC wall-box or public charger, and 36 minutes using a 50kWh DC charger.

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Wheels spoke with Mazda Australia’s marketing director, Alastair Doak, and asked if the brand expected high demand for a rather pricey EV with a relatively low driving range.

“It was our choice to bring it in one spec, but the EV market in Australia is very much in its infancy. It’s our first EV ever, so we think bringing it in this spec is putting our best foot forward,” Doak said.

“It’s incredibly well-specified for its price point, and there are things in there that other products don’t have, and I think we’re the only car in that class around the price that has a 2020 five-star ANCAP rating too.

“This will be a niche model for us, so we don’t have huge sales aspirations, but if the demand is there then we’ll be able to supply it.”

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Doak is correct, Mazda MX-30 is the only EV ANCAP has tested since the end of 2019, though more than a dozen other EVs have been tested since 2014, and all have scored five stars.

More on the high level of fitout in the MX-30 though, and while the list of mod-cons is decent (glass sunroof, heated seats, keyless entry, electrically adjustable seats, and a 12-speaker Bose audio system), the appointment and design of the car appears to be what more immediately makes the MX-30 feel a little luxurious.

Brown ‘Maztex’ faux leather and black cloth combine for the seating and other interior touch-points, while cork features in the centre console area as a nod to when Mazda used to manufacture…well, cork.

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Doak says the MX-30 range is ”obviously a car that’s caught people’s interest”, with one MX-30 EV already having been sold prior to the books officially opening.

“It’s early days and we’ve had the mild hybrid MX-30 models on sale, and they’re going well, the enquiry has been good. With EV we’ve been communicating with existing customers and we’ve had enquiries at dealerships. And we’ve had 100 of our dealers put their hands up and say they want to sell EVs for us. We were pleasantly surprised by how much interest dealers had to support it.

“We actually just sold our first MX-30 EV in Sydney to existing Mazda owners which is great.”

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Doak adds more electrified Mazdas are on the way, next on the list being the range-extender MX-30 – though other models will eventually see EV powertrains introduced.

“We’ll expand the MX-30 line-up here too, we’ve put our hand up for the rotary range-extender version which starts its global production next year, and we very much want to bring that to the market once it’s available to us.

“Even though the market take-up is very small at the moment, we still felt it was important to fly the flag here, and to give our customers a choice should they want it."

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As Hiroshima’s first EV, the Mazda MX-30 EV includes a couple of new developments to the way Mazda says its cars drive, the first of which is the e-GVC Plus system, an evolution of Mazda’s G-Vectoring Control system, which now uses the electric motors’ torque to balance the chassis through cornering.

Essentially, the MX-30 will slightly reduce torque during cornering to lean into the front wheels and do the opposite once the driver straightens the wheel.

The second is what Mazda calls a motor pedal, which “realises the desired vehicle speed based on the driver’s intended amount of acceleration or deceleration,” which sounds an awful lot like a regular accelerator, though the system actually works with the brakes to intelligently regenerate energy for the battery, which can be adjusted by wheel-mounted paddles.

Mazda says the MX-30 will be covered by its five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty, and can be bought with a five-year servicing plan priced at $1,274, which covers intervals of 12 months or 15,000km, whichever comes first.

Mazda says customers should visit the brand’s website to express interest in the initial release of 100 models.