To say the Mazda MX-30 EV is a flop is a tremendous understatement.
Late last week, the Japanese automaker quietly announced it was pulling its first (and to-date, only) electric vehicle from the North American market. It’s easy to see why when you look at its sales figures: Just 571 people pulled the trigger during the car’s entire three-year run so far. From January through June 2023, a whopping 66 people put a new MX-30 in their driveway.
Now, that’s not to say Mazda expected this car to be a smash-hit from the start. It only sold the MX-30 in California and the automaker knew the appeal of a $35,385 EV with a paltry 35.5-kWh battery and a 100-mile range was limited. The company also said it sold out its production run last year, so…you were never going to see these little electric crossovers everywhere anyway.
We’re apparently not getting the R-EV plug-in hybrid version, either.
Unfortunately, our friends over at Autoblog confirmed (as well as Mazda’s PR reps) that we’re not getting the rotary engine, range-extended MX-30 REV either. While it has just half the the battery capacity, the tiny 830-cc engine and fuel tank means it can travel far longer than its purely electric counterpart. The MX-30 isn’t an awful car, but the R-EV would have been a model that would more closely match American driving habits.
In the spirit of the SkyActiv-D diesel, SkyActiv-X gas engine and a revived rotary sports car…it just seems Mazda has other short-term ambitions.
For now, the company specifically mentioned its efforts to push PHEVs, namely the CX-90 and CX-70. It does have a potential ace up its sleeve with future fully electric cars, though — and that’s Mazda’s tie-up with Toyota. The two automakers’ joint efforts may open up Mazda’s access to a new electric platform as well as solid-state battery technology, which could massively improve driving range. That’s all still in the works, so we’ll have to wait and see how it all pans out.
Toyota’s solid-state batteries, if they come to fruition in the next few years, will reportedly offer up to 745 miles of range and charge in well under 15 minutes. While the company said it made a “technological breakthrough” to solve durability and materials issues, we have yet to see these packs actually go into commercial production, so take it with a grain of salt.
Tommy checked out the MX-30 below (before the company announced its discontinuation, of course):
