First, variants equipped with the 2.0-liter Skyactiv-G engine get their horsepower bumped up to 165 horses—9 horsepower up from the current, and 210 Nm of torque—up 10 Nm of torque from the current. These improves may seem marginal, but take note: as Mazda unlocked additional performance from this engine, they’ve managed to cut 7 to 9 grams per kilometer in terms of CO2 emissions.

Then, the 194-horsepower 2.5-liter Skyactiv-G now gets cylinder deactivation. The technology, first introduced in the Mazda6 switches between four- and two-cylinder modes to improve real-world fuel consumption at no cost to performance (the 2.0-liter also gets this tech, but limited to just the manual transmission variants).

As previously revealed by Mazda, these new powertrain improvements go hand-in-hand with a slew of added features for the 2021 CX-5. Front and center is the Mazda Connect 2 system. First seen in the Mazda3 and CX-30, this 10.25-inch center display screen is more intuitive to use. Certain variants also swap the interior wood trim with high-gloss black which is offered with a leather/suede combination for the seats.

It’s currently unknown if Mazda will offer these running changes to Malaysian-built CX-5s (the Philippines sources them there). If they do, expect it to arrive sometime this year, or perhaps next year as the current model’s last hurrah (the all-new CX-5 is rumored to debut in late 2022).