Mazda has found a strong formula for building cars. They make them feel stylish and premium with their Kodo design language. They make them fun to drive with torquey engines and six-speed automatic transmissions instead of CVTs. This formula works so well that Mazda basically has been building more or less the same car — CX-30, CX-5, CX-9 — sized for every segment.
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What Mazda has not focused on as part of that formula is fuel efficiency. But that’s about the change. Mazda just outlined its building strategy for the next decade: Sustainable Zoom Zoom 2030 (Yes — that is the name they went with). A big shift is coming. And it will arrive in waves.
The first wave will be on Mazda’s SKYACTIV Multi-Solution Scalable Architecture, which we hope will be shortened to SMSSA. The brand will launch 13 new electrified vehicles on that platform from 2022-25. Five will be hybrids, five will be plug-in hybrids and three will be electric vehicles.
Mazda plans to have a dedicated EV architecture in place by 2025 called SKYACTIV Scalable EV architecture with vehicles running on it to be determined. The brand says 100% of its vehicles will have “some level of electrification” by 2030, with 25% of those vehicles being full-electric. The plans are a bit more ambitious than Mazda shareholder Toyota’s in the meantime strategy. But with a smaller fleet positioned further upmarket, Mazda can afford to be.
Going hybrid does not mean the “Zoom Zoom” is going away. One of those new electrified vehicles may be a hybrid-enhanced performance version of the new, rear-wheel-drive Mazda 6 sedan. Though, on the flip side, those plans don’t seem to leave room for a manual transmission MX-5 Miata.