Mazda News: Mazda to Show First EV in Tokyo

[Drew Dowdell]

Mazda currently has no EVs or Hybrids in its stable of vehicles, but that will start to change next month at the Tokyo Auto Show when Mazda unveils its first EV meant for production.  Mazda recently announced that it will put a fully electric vehicle into production in 2020 and a plug-in hybrid following later. The plug-in will use a small rotary engine to recharge the battery on the go. 

What we don't know yet is what type of EV Mazda will be producing.  If it is a small hatchback, we can chalk the potential sales up as "not many". The test mule that Mazda is using has been the new CX-30 with a 35.5 kWh battery and an electric motor good for 141 horsepower and 195 lb.-ft of torque. That battery pack is considerably smaller than the 64 kWh unit the Hyundai Kona uses in North America.  Mazda says that the vehicle will not be based on any of their current lineup, but instead will be all new. It is possible that North America only gets the range extended version due to longer drives on this continent. 

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