Mazda announces “unique” EV platform by 2025, fully electrified line-up by 2030

Japanese automaker Mazda announced last week that it will launch its own “unique” EV platform in 2025 and that, by 2030, its entire line-up of vehicles will have some level of electrification.

Mazda has been slow to enter the electric vehicle revolution, launching its first ever pure electric vehicle, the MX-30 Electric, earlier this year, having spent the last few years focusing on perfecting increased efficiency for its internal combustion engines.

Unsurprisingly, however, the inexorable tide of EV demand has required Mazda jump on board, and in an announcement released last Thursday the Japanese automotive giant announced a suite of new policies under the banner of Sustainable Zoom-Zoom 2030 – all of which are intended to support the company’s goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2050.

The company’s new Sustainable Zoom-Zoom 2030 policies are broadly focused and include everything from an accumulation of technological assets under its Building Block Strategy through to the more ephemeral goal of “human-centred development.” But the headline-worthy focus of Mazda’s new Zoom-Zoom policies is plans to launch its two new hybrid and electric vehicle architectures, which will deliver a number of hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and purely-electric vehicles over the next decade.

First off the blocks will be Mazda’s SKYACTIV Multi-Solution Scalable Architecture. Set to be introduced between 2022 and 2025 for Japan, Europe, the US, China, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the new Scalable Architecture line will consist of five hybrid models, five plug-in hybrid models, and three EV models.

“Based on this architecture, we will deliver multiple electrification solutions to meet various customers’ needs, environmental regulations and the electric power generating infrastructure in a market,” Mazda said in its official statement.

This will be followed with the launch of the company’s SKYACTIV Scalable EV Architecture which will include “several products” launched between 2025 and 2030.

By 2030, then, Mazda expects that its entire line-up will have some level of electrification, with an battery electric ratio of 25%.

Mazda’s new Zoom-Zoom policies will also focus on deploying its “human-centric autonomous driving system”, the “Mazda Co-pilot Concept” which, according to the company’s announcement, “monitors the driver’s condition at all times and if a sudden change in the driver’s physical condition is detected, switches to autonomous driving, bringing the car to a safe place, stopping the car and places an emergency call.”

The company’s first EV off the blocks will be the MX-30 Electric, Mazda’s SUV coupe-style car which is already available for pre-order with a price tag of $65,490 and which is expected see deliveries begin in August. However, according to Mazda’s May launch, only 100 vehicles of the MX-30 Electric have been slated to reach Australian shores.

Nevertheless, the $A65,490 price tag ensures that the new MX-30 Electric will be eligible for Victoria’s $3,000 government subsidy – which is available for up to 20,000 EVs that come in under $69,000 – as well as New South Wales’ new incentive package, which will waive stamp duty for electric vehicles priced under $78,000 and include a $3,000 rebate will be available for the first 25,000 purchases of battery and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles that cost less than $68,750.