Mazda has announced its new strategy which will “enhance its electrified future” while confirming that the OEM will continue to pour development into alternatives to full battery electric vehicles (BEVs).
The Japanese brand has long been known for ‘going against the flow’ and refusing to follow the recent industry rush to electric, arguing that EVs are not the only answer to CO2 reduction, with more efficient combustion engines also having a role to play.
This strategy has even included diesel engines, fast being abandoned by OEMs as a whole – the latest Mazda UK launch in February 2025, the CX-80 large SUV, is on sale with either a plug-in hybrid or diesel powertrain.
While several brands now have a large electric presence in their model line-up, Mazda offers just one full BEV, the MX-30 SUV, also available with a range-extender petrol engine operating as a generator to recharge the battery. Mazda’s first ‘mainstream’ BEV, the Mazda6e (pictured above), was unveiled at the Brussels Motor Show in January 2025 but will not arrive in showrooms until at least 2026.
At a briefing in Tokyo, Mazda confirmed that it will continue to pursue a ‘multi-solution strategy’, combining internal combustion engines and electrification technologies; “This strategy will ensure that Mazda’s vehicles are equipped with the most suitable powertrain options, whether internal combustion engines, hybrids, or battery EVs, tailored to different driving environments and customer needs.”
Innovations will include a new combustion engine in the brand’s Skyactiv programme – the Skyactiv-Z will be designed for what Mazda describes as its small products in the electrification era, meeting Euro 7 emissions standards and producing high fuel economy and combined with the brand’s in-house developed hybrid system. It will first be seen in the next Mazda CX-5 SUV launching in 2027.
A new battery-electric platform developed in-house by Mazda, and using battery packs developed by Panasonic, is described as highly flexible in both its hardware and software, which will allow it to be employed with various types of battery and in a range of different vehicles.
One of the first of these new models will be a new full-electric SUV, which is expected to be unveiled before the end of 2027, while Mazda also confirmed that a new mixed-flow production line on which its EVs will be built will enable investment costs to be cut by some 85%.
When Mazda first began to promote its multi-solution approach the brand attracted widespread scepticism at a time when the industry as a whole was rapidly ramping up plans for a complete transition to electric. However more recent times have seen significant slowing in the electric switch with more questions over the viability of a rapid transition.
Mazda president and CEO Masahiro Moro described the latest strategy announcement as Mazda evolving as the automotive industry is going through a once-in-a-century seismic shift. “All of us at Mazda are committed to striking the right balance of efficient business management and development of sustainable technology to deliver unique value regardless of business scale,” he added.
