After being made available in China since late last year, Mazda has now expanded the availability of the CX-50 Hybrid (HEV) to the North American market as well.
Fitted with Mazda’s first “strong” hybrid, it is basically the RAV4 Hybrid’s Toyota Hybrid System (THS) lock, stock, and barrel.
The system is comprised of a 2.5-liter naturally-aspirated four-cylinder engine, hybrid EV battery, three electric motors, Electronically-controlled Continuously Variable Transmission (eCVT), and standard Electric AWD (eAWD). All in all, the setup is good for 219 horsepower and 221 Nm of torque. It delivers up to 40 percent fuel efficiency compared to the non-electrified CX-50 (16.1 km/L).
Despite taking on the Toyota Hybrid powertrain, Mazda says they’ve done their own calibrations to the system in the form of accelerator pedal response. It comes with a variety of driving modes such as Power and Trail. The placement of the hybrid battery allows for an expansive cargo area and the towing capacity is rated at 680 kilograms.
Visually, the CX-50 Hybrid is distinguished from other CX-50 models thanks to a different lower front bumper design, Hybrid badging, and unique wheels ranging from 17 to 19 inches. The 19s have a split black and machine polished nature with a turbine-inspired design.
Features include the availability of a red leather option, a 10.25-inch infotainment display with touchscreen functionality for its wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a 12-speaker Bose sound system, power seats, power tailgate, and expanded Mazda i-Activsense functionality.
The move to use Toyota’s hybrid system shouldn’t come as a surprise as Mazda is partly owned by Toyota (5 percent). Mazda and Toyota have also collaborated in other badge-engineering projects like the Mazda Bongo Brawny (Toyota Hiace) and the European market Mazda2 (Toyota Yaris).
The same hybrid system will also be used by Subaru in the all-new Forester Hybrid and Crosstrek Hybrid, both expected in 2025.
Right now, it’s unknown whether this Mazda and Toyota powertrain collaboration is limited to just the CX-50. It must be remembered that the all-new CX-5 has been confirmed to get some form of electrification. Though the CX-5 is already available with the 24-volt M Hybrid system, previous reports have already stated that it will also get an in-house developed electrified 2.5-liter engine as well.
Curiously, the Mazda CX-30 and Mazda CX-5 shares the same hardware with the CX-50 but when I checked on their dashboards means they're different, and as I found out that Mazda have had only lost a lot of money to manufacture cars in the wrong time than to have them (Mazda) partner with a compatriot they used to work well like Nissan for example - speaking of that then I think it would be nice to say that Toyota should've sold its shares in Mazda (as well as Suzuki, Isuzu, Subaru etc.) to Nissan so that the latter (Nissan) would replace its Infiniti luxury marque.
ReplyDeleteSince its introduction in 1989, Infiniti have only preferred to get real as a North America-only marque, and following Nissan's merger with Renault ten years later meant that Infiniti lagged behind competitors - Mazda on the other hand is already going upscale and that's why it honestly makes sense for Nissan to take over Mazda just as it (Nissan) did with Mitsubishi in 2016... (Thank goodness Mitsubishi have refused to leave North America as compared to Suzuki and Isuzu.)
Mazda(and Subaru) are relying on Toyota's electrification strategy. I just hope they can compete well going into the electrification era.
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