Say howdy to the battery-powered Mazda 6e liftback, the Japanese producer’s long-overdue return to the electrical automobile (EV) market.
It’s been greater than two years years for the reason that model’s first try at a mass-produced EV, the MX-30 small electrical SUV, was discontinued in Australia. However what you see here’s a rather more superior and, to be frank, compelling effort at producing a worldwide EV that may compete with its now well-established rivals.
First time round, Mazda tackled the problem of creating an EV alone, designing and constructing the MX-30 in Japan.
This time, Mazda has teamed up with its Chinese language affiliate to convey this new-generation EV to life. The Mazda 6e is the primary mannequin produced in partnership with Changan Cars, an organization which constructed its first automotive in 1959 and which Mazda has a 20-year working relationship with.
Nevertheless, don’t assume for a second that the Mazda 6e is just a few rebadged Chinese language automotive from one other producer you’ve by no means heard of. Mazda was concerned within the growth of the 6e’s platform from the outset.
Whereas Changan has taken care of battery growth and far of the 6e’s cabin {hardware} and know-how, Mazda developed its personal exterior and inside, formed the working system and, most significantly, tuned the suspension and steering particularly for European and Western markets like Australia and New Zealand.
The Changan Mazda partnership permits the Japanese automaker to leverage Chinese language experience in battery and EV manufacturing, releasing up Mazda to stay to its robust fits: journey and dealing with traits, and inside and exterior design.
On paper, the 6e (and its upcoming sister mannequin, the CX-6e SUV) must be the most effective of each worlds – state-of-the-art Chinese language EV manufacturing and battery tech, and Mazda’s popularity for making automobiles which are truly enjoyable to drive.
We headed out on the slender metropolis streets, 120km/h motorways and twisting hills in and round Barcelona, Spain, to search out out if that is the case with the religious successor the long-lamented Mazda 6.
How a lot does the Mazda 6e price?
In Australia there shall be two variants of this all-new mid-size electrical liftback – the 6e E35 GT priced from below $50,000 and the 6e E35 Atenza priced from below $53,000.
|
Mannequin |
Value earlier than on-road prices |
|---|---|
|
2026 Mazda 6e E35 GT |
$49,990 |
|
2026 Mazda 6e E35 Atenza |
$52,990 |
Every variant is differentiated solely by inside supplies, and every variant is priced beneath the 6e’s most direct competitor, the top-selling Tesla Mannequin 3 (from $54,900 plus ORCs), however not the BYD Seal, which is priced from $49,888 plus ORCs and can be obtainable in three grades.
To see how the Mazda 6e traces up towards the competitors, try our comparability device
Allow us to show you how to discover your new automotive
Purchase your new automotive with out the stress. It is quick, easy and utterly free.
Nice service from Travis and group, second time I’ve used this enterprise wouldn’t hesitate to advocate them to anybody
Craig C.
Bought a Ford Ranger in Sunshine Coast, QLD
CarExpert helped Craig save 1000’s on his Ford Ranger, now allow us to prevent in your subsequent new automotive.
What’s the Mazda 6e like inside?
Not like any Mazda we’ve seen but.
Granted, the supplies and visible design are unmistakably Mazda. The seats are very snug, the leather-based they’re wrapped in feels premium, and there’s even suede on the highest of the door playing cards. Mazda has a knack of constructing its interiors really feel extra premium than their value factors, and the 6e isn’t any totally different.
However do something past sitting in it’s a totally different story.
The partnership between Changan and Mazda is most closely weighted in the direction of China in terms of the touchscreen-heavy controls. The whole lot other than the home windows, hazard lights, gear selector (mounted behind the wheel), adaptive cruise on/off and indicators is managed by the central 14.6-inch touchscreen show.
Wish to alter the wipers? Touchscreen. Modify the facet mirrors? Touchscreen. Change to a radio station that is not preset? Yep, touchscreen. It sounds loopy, but in apply it really works higher than you’d assume.
There’s a devoted menu working alongside the underside of the display screen that’s all the time there, permitting you to rapidly alter cabin temperature, flip the heated seats on, management fan pace, or entry the drive menus. As soon as I discovered the place every little thing is, I acquired used to it rather more rapidly than anticipated.
These wipers and mirror controls are simply accessed and, when you concentrate on it, they’re gadgets most drivers usually set and overlook. The wipers dwell in auto mode, however you may need to do a fast tutorial to elucidate the mirror controls whenever you lend your 6e to a mate.
The menu working alongside the underside can be customisable, as are two ‘Favorite’ shortcut buttons on the steering wheel, which you’ll preset to entry the menus or modes you utilize repeatedly. It additionally helps that the display screen is high-definition and really conscious of react when touched. It’s powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip that is sooner than some folks’s smartphones, and I wouldn’t need it any slower with this sort of touch-centric management structure.
Talking of screens, the driving force’s 10.25-inch instrument cluster can be absolutely digital and all 6e automobiles have a head-up show that dwarfs the driving force’s cluster and might be adjusted by way of the… yeah, touchscreen.
This could possibly be so much for some prospects to cope with, but it surely needs to be stated that the suggestions and route given to Changan Mazda by their colleagues at Mazda Japan and Europe have made this one of many best touchscreen system I’ve ever utilized in a Chinese language-made EV. The very fact I may use it fluently on the transfer in lower than a day is one thing I didn’t anticipate in a left-hand drive automotive.
However that’s sufficient display screen chat. There’s extra to this cabin than pixels. As I stated earlier, the seats are snug although the driving place within the 6e is a bit greater than I anticipated. The motive force’s seat is power-adjustable, as is the entrance passenger’s, and headroom isn’t a problem. However I’d prefer it to drop into the chassis a bit extra. Possibly that is a touch at how this liftback is tuned – consolation over efficiency.
Beneath the display screen is a wi-fi telephone charger and there is space for storing between the entrance occupants with USB-C shops. The central armrest can be wrapped in leather-based and opens to disclose one other massive storage bin.
Our tester was additionally fitted with a 14-speaker Sony sound system, which sounded nice taking part in Kiwi rock whereas I used to be driving on the opposite facet of the planet.
Within the again row, there’s loads of house for a minimum of full-size adults. Regardless of being a liftback with a sloping rear roofline, shoulder and knee room is loads for anybody below six-foot-four-ish. As a result of it’s an EV, the rear flooring is flat however a hump within the center seat base means two-wide is the most suitable choice for grownup journey.
Rear-seat occupants get to benefit from the panoramic glass roof, whereas the tailgate is power-operated and divulges 466 litres of whole boot house. Mix that with the 72L frunk up entrance and the 6e pips the final Mazda 6 sedan’s boot capability of 477L.
|
Dimensions |
Mazda 6e |
|---|---|
|
Size |
4921mm |
|
Width |
1890mm (excl. mirrors) |
|
Peak |
1485mm |
|
Wheelbase |
2895mm |
|
Cargo capability |
337L (to belt line, incl. under-floor storage) |
To see how the Mazda 6e traces up towards the competitors, try our comparability device
What’s below the bonnet?
An honest-sized frunk that is sufficiently big in your charging cable, two packing containers of wine, and two full procuring luggage. I used to be in Europe, the place packing containers of wine are a unit of measurement, okay?
|
Specs |
Mazda 6e |
|---|---|
|
Drivetrain |
Single electrical motor |
|
Battery |
78kWh lithium iron phosphate |
|
Energy |
190kW |
|
Torque |
290Nm |
|
Drive kind |
Rear-wheel drive |
|
0-100km/h (examined; prototype) |
7.35 seconds |
|
Vitality consumption (claimed) |
15.9kWh/100km |
|
Claimed vary |
560km (WLTP) |
|
Max DC cost price |
195kW |
|
Braked towing capability |
1500kg |
|
Kerb weight |
2090kg |
Nevertheless, below that you simply received’t discover any electrical motors. The 6e is Mazda’s first all-new rear-wheel drive mannequin for the reason that RX-8 and there are at present no plans for an all-wheel drive model.
Our take a look at automotive was European-spec with an 80kWh LFP battery and a single electrical motor on the rear axle delivering 180kW of energy and 320Nm of torque. Claimed 0-100km/h acceleration is 7.9 seconds and prime pace is 175km/h.
As you may see within the desk above, Australian-spec automobiles may have a barely totally different battery and motor, and we have already discovered they’re going to be barely faster.
The LFP battery is able to DC fast-charging at as much as 195kW, when Mazda says a 30-80 per cent cost is feasible in as little as quarter-hour.
To see how the Mazda 6e traces up towards the competitors, try our comparability device
What’s the Mazda 6e prefer to drive?
I’ve to confess, I used to be a bit frightened about this half. I learn and watched Paul’s overview of a pre-production 6e forward of time and was involved I’d discover the 6e a bit gentle as effectively.
That didn’t transform the case. On the transfer the 6e looks like… effectively, a rear-wheel drive, electrical Mazda 6. In my ebook, that’s no dangerous factor.
I do get the place Paul is coming from, although. Round city and at slower speeds the Mazda 6e absorbs bumps and uneven surfaces rather well. Not one of the potholes in Barcelona involved the Mazda below 60km/h. Props to the Mazda Europe engineers, who tuned the suspension for 6e automobiles coming to Australia and New Zealand – they actually know what they’re doing.
The place my expertise differed from Paul’s was once I gained pace. You possibly can journey wherever from 90 to 120km/h on the motorways of Barcelona and, if something, the 6e I drove on them felt higher at these speeds. The automotive feels mild on the wheel and but it by no means felt floaty at pace, the place noise and vibration contained in the cabin was additionally minimal and among the many greatest I’ve skilled within the electrical sedan phase.
The 6e has three drive modes – Regular, Sport and Particular person. Within the latter you may flip up the regenerative braking to its highest setting, however even then I discovered it wasn’t fairly forceful sufficient to be a real one-pedal drive mode, requiring a light-weight contact of the brake to convey it to a cease. ‘Regular’ provides you a steadiness between vary/effectivity and efficiency, and applies normal steering weight and regenerative braking pressure.
‘Sport’ is what I actually wished to check out and I did so on the twisting rural roads round Barcelona. On this mode the 6e reduces the steering help, will increase the regenerative braking and means that you can deploy as a lot vitality because the system can muster.
Once more, the driving place feels a bit too excessive for a low-slung liftback, but it surely did assist me place the automotive extra simply on the flawed facet of the highway in unfamiliar territory.
Regardless, the chassis responded effectively to spirited driving within the twisties and the 6e’s highway manners remained well-sorted on some very slender and undulating backroads. The 6e I drove weighed simply over two tonnes, but the suspension and brakes had no points coping with all that mass.
It was genuinely pleasurable to drive on a difficult highway, and by no means felt like a handful that will get away from me. That is in all probability partially due to the 6e’s straight-line efficiency, or lack tthereof.
With 180kW, 320Nm and a 7.9-second 0-100km/h declare in Euro spec, this isn’t an EV that violently forces you again into the seat or scares the life out of your passengers. It additionally means it’s probably not an EV which you can steer from the rear axle. It would slide, for positive, but it surely will not lay down black traces or over-rotate on you.
We’ve develop into numb to some bonkers 0-100km/h instances within the EV house, however after 400km of driving I discovered that’s not what the 6e is all about. It’s a lot too refined for that. The place the 6e actually shines is as a cushty each day commuter or freeway cruiser.
It does have a useful 11.6-metre turning circle, which is similar to the Tesla Mannequin 3. However any Mannequin 3, together with the entry-level single-motor RWD, will depart it behind below acceleration.
That received’t matter to everybody, as a result of some individuals are extra economically minded than others. And they need to be completely satisfied to listen to that after 400km of freeway, metropolis and spirited backroad driving, I truly bettered the 6e’s WLTP vitality consumption determine of 15.9kWh/100km, ending my time with the Mazda at 15.6kWh/100km.
To see how the Mazda 6e traces up towards the competitors, try our comparability device
What do you get?
There are two trim ranges within the Mazda 6e lineup.
2026 Mazda 6e GT tools highlights:
- 19-inch alloy wheels
- Computerized LED headlights
- Panoramic sunroof
- Heated, power-folding exterior mirrors with reminiscence
- Energy tailgate
- Rain-sensing wipers
- Keyless entry and begin
- Bluetooth key
- Augmented actuality head-up show
- 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster
- 14.6-inch touchscreen infotainment system
- Wi-fi Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
- DAB+ digital radio
- Tri-zone local weather management
- Leatherette-wrapped steering wheel
- Leatherette upholstery
- Heated and ventilated entrance seats
- 10-way energy driver’s seat
- 4-way energy passenger seat
- 64-colour ambient lighting
- 14-speaker Sony sound system
The Atenza provides:
- Tan leather-based and artificial suede seat trim with quilted stitching
- Tan artificial suede trim on the dashboard and doorways
- Two-tone black and leather-based steering wheel
To see how the Mazda 6e traces up towards the competitors, try our comparability device
Is the Mazda 6e protected?
The Mazda 6e has but to be assessed by unbiased security authority ANCAP, although its European counterpart Euro NCAP awarded the EV with a five-star score in 2025.
It acquired an grownup occupant safety score of 93 per cent, a baby occupant safety score of 93 per cent, a weak highway consumer safety score of 74 per cent, and a security help score of 77 per cent.
Customary security tools contains:
- Adaptive cruise management with cease/go
- Autonomous emergency braking (AEB)
-
- Junction help
- Pedestrian and bike owner detection
- Reverse AEB
- Blind-spot monitoring
- Cruising & Site visitors Assist
- Driver monitoring system
- Entrance and rear cross-traffic alert
- Lane-keep help
- Secure exit warning
- Site visitors signal recognition
- Encompass-view digicam with see-through view
- Entrance and rear parking sensors
- 9 airbags
To see how the Mazda 6e traces up towards the competitors, try our comparability device
How a lot does the Mazda 6e price to run?
Mazda Australia backs its automobiles with a five-year, unlimited-kilometre guarantee.
It hasn’t confirmed service pricing or battery guarantee protection for the Mazda 6e as but.
To see how the Mazda 6e traces up towards the competitors, try our comparability device
CarExpert’s tackle the Mazda 6e
Our first style of the Mazda 6e was promising.
From knowledgeable critiques to the suitable deal
CarExpert brings critiques, analysis instruments and trusted shopping for assist collectively, guiding you from analysis to supply with confidence.
We’ve waited a while for Mazda to re-enter the EV house and so much has modified available in the market since its final effort, but it surely appears to be like just like the 6e shall be well worth the wait.
Whereas I discovered the journey and dealing with to be much-improved since Paul’s pre-production drive expertise, it’s value noting that the 6e isn’t any sports activities sedan.
Nevertheless, that doesn’t imply it isn’t enjoyable to drive.
Some EVs throw efficiency at you, seemingly within the hope that you simply’ll miss their iffy inside fitment, unresolved suspension, or orange-peel paint.
Mazda has gone concerning the 6e differently. It may have made it sooner if it wished – of that I’ve little question.
What it has completed as an alternative is create an on a regular basis household automotive that’s enjoyable to drive and environment friendly whereas doing so. It is persona is pleasant and welcoming, like an outdated pal with nothing to show.
After which there’s the appears to be like – each the Mazda 6e’s and those it attracted in Barcelona. The Spanish observed this automotive. Whether or not it was in a rural city or town, folks stopped to stare on the 6e and, after they did, they smiled.
Sure, the Mazda is a delightful form of automotive – and never simply to drive.
CarExpert can prevent 1000’s on a brand new Mazda 6e. Click on right here to get a fantastic deal.
Click on the photographs for the total gallery
