Mazda’s new MX-30 is an EV that lacks juice

Charging times continue to drop with DC fast-charging. Getting to an 80% charge from 10% is something most of the cars above can accomplish in 45 minutes or so. The IONIQ 5 and its cousin, the Kia EV6, have 800-volt charging systems. I charged the IONIQ 5 from 9% to 80% in 21 minutes, and I’m not alone (some journalists have done the same in 19 minutes).

Moments like this are exciting. There’s anticipation of the next great advance, or at least of new competitors keeping the drumbeat going.

And that’s what makes the 2022 Mazda MX-30 so disappointing. Mazda’s an innovative brand. This is its first electric. Should be great, right?

Sadly, no. The 2022 Mazda MX-30’s electric motor manages a mere 143 horsepower (rear-wheel drive IONIQ 5s are at 225, and the AWD versions put out 320) and range is 100 miles.

Putting it in perspective – that’s about what the Nissan Leaf delivered per charge 10 years ago.

In fairness, there are people for whom 100 miles on a charge might be enough. If that’s all the miles that are put on the car in a day, you can charge at home. If it takes a week or more to drive those miles around town, you could charge during a weekly shopping trip at a public charger.

After all, the MX-30’s range is low because its battery is small, so you should be able to charge it quickly, right? Not really. Mazda says a charge from 10% to 80% takes an hour on a DC fast-charger. At a time when most EVs with much bigger batteries and much more range can do it in 45 minutes. When Kia and Hyundai have cars that can do it in 20.

Slow-charging challenge

I charged the MX-30 twice in the week I had it. The first time was on an Electrify America 150kw charger while I was at a doctor visit; 59% to 100% took 50 minutes. That seemed long if Mazda claims 10% to 80% in 60 minutes. I mentioned it on Twitter, and several good points were made.

One, EV manufacturers don’t recommend you charge to 100% too often. Charging to 80% is better for long-term battery health. Again, I was in a doctor’s office, and when I came out, it had charged to 100%.

Two, manufacturers program the on-board charging system to throttle back the charging speed from 80% onward to protect battery life. So that last 20% takes time – sometimes the same amount of time it takes to charge from 10% to 80% – doubling the length of your charging session.

So, I went to charge it again. To replicate the previous scenario, I started at 59%, but this time ended the session at 80% to see how long it would take to charge. Wanting an apples-to-apples comparison, I went to an Electrify America DC fast-charging station 6 miles from home. At every charger there, I got an error message saying the charge had “timed out” within seconds of the start.

So, it was back toward the house, where there’s a 125kw ChargePoint DC fast-charger. Now the battery is at 52%, but close enough.

No connection issues this time, but this 125kw charger peaked at 18kw (not a typo).

At that power delivery, the MX-30 was adding 1% per minute of charging. Getting to 80% from 52% took 28 minutes. And the car said that if we charged to 100%, it would be another 52 minutes on top of that.

There wasn’t time to do a third charge while I had the car. Clearly, the car charges slowly, and a DC fast-charger running slowly just makes it worse.

Limitations

Because of the name, the MX-30 seems likely to get confused with the gas-powered CX-30. The two actually have little in common, with a much more cramped rear seat in the electric as well as less-premium materials.

The base price of the Mazda MX-30 with the Premium Plus Package is $36,480. There’s a lot that comes standard at that price: 18-inch alloy wheels, automatic climate control, leather shift knob and steering wheel, power driver’s seat, full suite of active safety features, heated steering wheel and 12-speaker Bose premium audio system.

The only extra-cost option on our test vehicle was the three-tone “ceramic” paint at $890. So, with $1,170 delivery, processing and handling fee, the as-tested price of the 2022 Mazda MX-30 is $38,550. And Mazda, being new to the EV game, has incentives available, which could knock that price down closer to $30,000.

Still, the MX-30 is hard to recommend because it does nothing to advance the state of the EV. It reinforces the stereotypes of limits and inconvenience that have held EV adoption back. True, a lot of that was at a time when the tech wasn’t there to build a (relatively) inexpensive EV that could go farther and charge quicker. However, that time has passed.