Mazda it has always been a home counter-current, which chooses to face the challenges of the automotive world in an original and unconventional way. And it seems that, also in the next few years, we will have to see the “out of the box” thinking of the Hiroshima House. In fact, the new Mazda CX-60 and CX-80, based onbrand new rear-wheel drive platform and equipped with the new Skyactiv-X 6-cylinder in-line petrol engine. There will also be news for electricity MX-30, which will receive a legendary engine for Mazda, the rotativo Wankel. Like? Let’s find out together.
Mazda CX-60 and CX-80: the attack on the premium SUV sector
Let’s start immediately with the most important news for the market in the coming years. After having formalized the arrival, in 2022, of the totally revolutionized new Mazda 6a, the Japanese House announces two other models based on the same mechanical architecture.
It will be about the SUV Mazda CX-60 e CX-80. Already from the name, you can understand what the medium-large SUVs will be, more voluminous than the Mazda CX-30 and CX-5. CX-60 and CX-80 are part, together with the Mazda 6 and the models for the US market CX-50 and CX-70, of the new and ambitious offensive to attack the premium sector. In fact, in recent years Mazda has been making huge leaps in quality. Also looking at today’s range, from the excellent Mazda 2 and CX-3 to the new 3 and CX-30, there is a marked improvement in quality, style and value, without however inflating the prices to the levels, perhaps excessive, reached by the most competitors. blazoned. With the new Mazda 6, CX-60 and CX-80, the Hiroshima company wants to take another leap towards transformation to a premium brand.
All three new cars are based on the new large modular platform Large Platform, designed to have rear-wheel drive. A return to rear wheel traction on a model beyond the MX-5 after more than 10 years of absence, with the cancellation of the RX-8, and a new offensive to the premium market after the valid but little appreciated Xedos project of the early 90s . For now, however, we know very little about the new Mazda cars. The new 6 sedan will resume the lines of the 2017 Vision Coupé concept, bringing today’s Kodo Design to maximum power. Future SUVs, on the other hand, are still totally new. Today, we only know that Mazda CX-60 will be a model equipped with 5 places, while CX-80 will offer up to 3 rows of seats and 7 seats.
Under the hood, Mazda CX-60 and CX-80 will have the new Skyactiv-X six-cylinder in-line, but also diesel and plug-in hybrid engines
If we know little about them from an aesthetic point of view, we already know some details about the mechanics. In fact, Mazda wants to create one around the Large Platform eclectic engine family, capable of satisfying every need. Mazda CX-60, CX-80 and even the new 6 will indeed be available with petrol, hybrid but also diesel engines.
Starting from those that are less known, these three models will in fact lead to the Mazda’s first plug-in hybrid system debuts. Mazda PHEVs should have petrol engines coupled with an electric unit and a rechargeable battery under the hood, but we still don’t know the architecture or the power of these engines. We think, however, that this time Mazda too will do without the turbo by mounting aspirated thrusters.
By the way, in fact, the most interesting engine that these new models will bring to the debut is undoubtedly the new 6-cylinder in-line petrol engine. Mazda’s new multi-split engine will in all likelihood aspirated and coupled to a sistema Mild Hybrid a 48V. No turbo, no other supercharging systems, but a simple, classic naturally aspirated. However, this engine will be part of the family SkyActiv-X, that is, it will be a petrol engine equipped with a system capable of changing the ignition system of the mixture, passing from spark ignition, like a normal petrol, to compression ignition, like a diesel. Would you like to know more? At the bottom of the page you will find our in-depth analysis on the SkyActiv-X engine.
But that’s not all. Alongside the petrol and plug-in engines there will also be an engine diesel. It will be a propeller Second generation SkyActiv-D, also equipped with 48V Mild Hybrid technology, and is rumored to be an in-line 6 too, following the tradition of rightsizing and large displacement used by Mazda over the past 10 years.
After the 6-cylinder, another sensational return: Mazda MX-30 RE, the electric with Wankel engine
To find out more about the new generation Mazda, we will have to wait a few more months. The Japanese house, to make the wait sweeter, however, has launched two other news relating to its models electrical. First of all, in fact, from 2025 a new family of totally electric models will arrive and developed on one dedicated platform. So goodbye to sharing with thermal models seen today on the MX-30, the first electric of the House based on the chassis of the CX-30 SUV.
The second novelty, however, concerns the small city crossover, which will receive a truly surprising novelty. In a world of electric mobility that aims to have increasingly efficient and autonomous batteries, in fact, Mazda surprised everyone in 2020 with its MX-30. Equipped with a rather small battery, alone 35.5 kWh, which allows a homologated autonomy of 190 km in WLTP mixed cycle.
Mazda has repeatedly stated that it wants to aim for lightness with the MX-30, rather than autonomy, and that soon a solution for those who need to travel more km at once. And, as can be expected from Mazda by now, the solution is totally out of the box. The Hiroshima House has in fact formalized the arrival of the Mazda MX-30 RE, that is to say Range Extender. The Range Extender is a small gasoline engine that serves exclusively as a generator. It never moves the wheels, in fact, but only generates energy to recharge the battery.
That of the range extender is an interesting solution but only used by BMW i3 in recent times, and abandoned in recent years. Mazda instead recovers it, and in doing so brings back to life a true symbol of the Japanese house: the Wankel rotary engine. In fact, a small Renesis will act as a generator, the engine with rotary cylinder absent from world lists for about 10 years, since the departure of the RX-8 in 2013.
When will the Mazda CX-60, CX-80 and MX-30 with the Wankel generator arrive?
When we will see youtte these news? As we approach the end of 2021, we will have to wait until 2022 to get to know almost all the models announced between now and December. Indeed, this new series of Mazda models will also arrive next year.
Mazda CX-60 and CX-60 will see the light in 2022, while the RE version of MX-30 will arrive on the market within the first half of the year. In the next 12 months, therefore, Mazda will face a new phase in its crazy and unique history. After a decade of growth, it will launch the challenge to the greats of the car, with ambitious and content-filled models, but always unmistakably Mazda. Will he be able to break through? We can only wait a few months to find out.