Nope, not any number of RX-7s or even the RX-8, but this. This is the most powerful Mazda road car ever produced. It’s the all-new Mazda CX-60 PHEV, a full-size, five-seat, plug-in hybrid SUV.
Underneath those admittedly handsome flanks sits a 2.5-liter four-cylinder Skyactiv-G gasoline engine, which is mated to a 100kW electric motor and a 17.8kWh battery. There’s an eight-speed automatic gearbox that does without a torque converter, too, and there’s really very decent pace indeed for something weighing a couple of tons.
Mazda reckons on 0-100kph in 5.8sec and a (limited) top whack of 200kph thanks to system totals of 322hp and 500Nm of torque. This PHEV comes with the company’s ‘i-Activ’ AWD setup (mechanically, it’s a front-engine, rear-drive layout). On the other end of the scale, there’s a claimed 80km/L (sure, why not?) and CO2 emissions of 33g/km.
Running on electricity alone, Mazda reckons on 63km at up to 100kph before gasoline power kicks in, and a few kilometers more if you’re pottering around in the city.
Other powertrains are due to follow: a pair of straight-six units, one a 3.0-liter e-Skyactiv-X naturally aspirated gasoline, the other a 3.3-liter diesel sixer that’s said to weigh as much as a four-cylinder. Both get 48V mild-hybrid assistance for better efficiency, too, and both are available with rear-wheel drive as well. That’s right, a straight-six, rear-drive SUV.
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Modes are aplenty via Mi-Drive, running through normal, sport, off-road, towing, and EV, and all three CX-60s sit on Mazda’s Multi-Solution Scalable Architecture that will underpin more big Mazdas further down the line. It includes double-wishbone front and multilink rear suspension setups, in a bodyshell offering “excellent” rigidity, we’re assured.
There are further nods to the CX-60’s road manners and driver bias in the form of the Kinetic Posture Control, said to stabilize the big lug when cornering; it brakes the inside rear wheel for more pointiness. Plus, slotting that battery between the front and rear axles nice and low means it’s got good stability.
Certainly looks stable, doesn’t it? Mazdas have long been handsomely proportioned, well-thought-out designs, and this big new CX-60 is no different. That front-engined, rear-drive architecture gives it an innately proper stance, layered with the latest iteration of the company’s long-running Kodo design language. There’s an air of quiet grace about the CX-60’s almost slab-sided flanks, but nothing offensive, certainly.
Fairly clean inside, too. As with all Mazdas, there’s a driver-bias, a mix of materials abound (leather, wood, chrome), a touchscreen atop the dash, a 570-liter trunk (rising to 1,726 liters with the seats folded), and a range of trims running from the entry-level ‘Exclusive,’ through ‘Homura,’ and the range-topping ‘Takumi.’ Each gets correspondingly more luxuriant. And expensive. The Takumi starts at £48,050 (P3.3 million).
Mazda Motors UK boss Jeremy Thomson said: “With the positioning of the high voltage battery at the center of the car and as low as possible, this is a PHEV with a particularly low center of gravity. This, combined with a permanent all-wheel drive system incorporating shaft-driven transfer of torque between the axles, gives the car superior handling characteristics on a par with the best in the premium segment.”
Sounds good, but you’re waiting for the straight-six, rear-drive one, right?
2022 Mazda CX-60
NOTE: This article first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
