Review: Mazda MX-30

How do you dislike something so cute? I really wanted to like the electric MX-30, but much like an adorable puppy that pees on your floor, shreds your clothes, and spreads vaccine misinformation online, it just has too many negatives to make it worthwhile.

That cuteness is obvious from first glance at the MX-30. Based on the same platform as the internal combustion engine CX-30, the EV stands out with some obvious bodywork differences. Gone is the CX-30’s racy, gaping grille—an EV doesn’t have the need for funneling such a large amount of air into an intake for cooling, as an internal combustion engine has. The headlights look smaller and more innocent with the ring-shaped “angel eyes.” Rather than the muscular beltline and haunched stance of the CX-30, the MX-30 looks more like a half-scoop of ice cream, with a curved and deeply sloping rear hatch.

Last, and most certainly best, there are the rear suicide doors that open with hinges at the back. Not only does it make getting in and out of the rear seats easier—always a concern in a small car with small rear doors—but they look outstanding. Very few cars since I Love Lucy was on air have come with suicide doors. A black roof and pillars also make the upper part of the car’s metalwork blend in with the windows to keep it from looking too squat. There's a lot of character wrapped up in the bodywork of this car. Based on its character, I was quite fond of it. But based on how it functions as a means of getting around town, it fell far short of what an EV needs to be in an increasingly competitive and competent market.

Let’s just get something out of the way: These days, a battery range of under 200 miles is just inadequate. This means that it was especially unfortunate that the MX-30’s EPA-estimated 100 miles of range was right on the money during my testing in New York City and Long Island. This is a car made for short commutes and urban environments, not long-legged trips or freeway jaunts.

Mazda had been all-in on internal combustion engines for longer than much of its competition. While automakers such as Ford, Tesla, General Motors, Nissan, and Volkswagen began throwing heaps of effort and cash toward developing electric vehicles at the affordable end of the market, Mazda remained steadfast in eking out every last drop of efficiency from its gasoline motors. But like it or not, the future is here, and it’s electric. Mazda had to fall in line before it fell further behind its competition, so now we’ve got its first EV, the MX-30.

Mazda claims in its marketing materials that instead of going for all-out range, they chose to pack the MX-30 with a weak electric motor and short-range battery because that’s all a typical driver would need. I’m skeptical. It sounds like justification for underinvesting in EV technology over all these years. It doesn’t matter that most trips in the car are under 100 miles. Cumulatively, all those short trips add up fast. Trying to fit a day of commuting to and from work, plus errands, in the MX-30 means playing a never-ending game of range anxiety that involves starting every journey with maximum (or 80 percent) charge, carefully plotting out where to refill, and wondering whether you'll have enough power left at the end of the day to make it home.

The MX-30 can charge up to only 50kW on a fast charger. That’s weak compared to the 115-150kW available on the Ford Mustang Mach-E and the astounding Kia EV6 that can reach over 200kW at peak speed. Still, it has such a small battery that it doesn’t take that long to charge from 20 to 80 percent. I managed the task in about 40 minutes at a fast charger that didn’t quite hit its peak of 50kW for the entire charging time.

The MX-30’s remaining range estimator on the dashboard, though, was the most accurate of any EV I've driven. When it said I had 60 miles of range, I knew that 40 miles down the road I’d have about 20 miles of range left, even as I oscillated between bumper-to-bumper traffic and cruising along on the highway. That, at least, is a consolation prize for having such a short range.

Having said that, road trips in the MX-30 would be tedious beyond comprehension if you'’e having to stop every 50 to 75 miles to plug in, and downright impossible across many stretches of the country where charging stations are few and far between. Not to mention that lithium-ion EV batteries behave just like lithium-ion batteries in other consumer products, such as phones. If you charge it to full each time, you’re going to degrade the battery much faster than if you charge it to only 80 percent. Charge the MX-30 to 80 percent, though, and you’re starting with only 80 miles of range.

The MX-30 mounts an 8.8-inch touchscreen atop the dashboard and a separate 7-inch touchscreen for climate controls down by the shifter. The dashboard itself bisects the space between the two screens, so there’s no singular giant tablet that handles all functions, like Tesla, Polestar 2, the Mustang Mach-E, and, well, most EVs these days.

It’s an odd choice, although the 7-inch touchscreen looks uncommonly handsome. Most of the heating and cooling functions that physical buttons used to do are contained in this smaller touchscreen, although there are still physical buttons on either side of the screen to control the windshield defrosters, fan speed, power, and temperature. It’s redundant, but it’s also nice to be able to reach over to tap a button without taking your eyes off the road rather than have to look down at your knees to find the right icon on the touchscreen.

The UI is clunky. The more menus you have to click through to reach a desired setting means the more time the driver has to take their eyes away from the road. For that reason, I'm a strong believer that you should be able to access in just a couple of clicks any setting or control that you'd need while the car is moving. Having a clean UI in a car is a safety issue. I didn't like the knob that controlled functions on the screen, either. I couldn't put my finger on it, but either the slightly perceptible delay in responsiveness or a less-than-accurate tracking of the knob made using it while driving somewhat distressing.

That said, the rest of the interior was gorgeous. Mazda's interior designers did a fantastic job of making the MX-30—not a huge car—feel airy and roomy inside by blending different fabrics and light colors with modernist design elements. The center console that houses the shifter floats on a pedestal above a cork-like material that feels pleasant to the touch.

Actually, reach out to any surface in the MX-30 and it's swathed in one pleasant-feeling, soft-touch fabric or another. All panels feel solid, and I'd go as far as to say it's one of the best-looking interiors in any car, electric or not, this side of $50 grand. Wrapping myself in the MX-30's interior was my favorite part of driving the car.

Driving performance is underwhelming. Doubly so because this is a Mazda. Seemingly with Mazdas across the board steering feels sharp and precise, with good feedback transmitted to the driver while the suspension and chassis are taut and responsive. Not just the RX-7 and MX-5 sports cars, but also the family sedan Mazda 3 and Mazda 6. Name a car segment and typically Mazda's entrant is among the most fun to drive. Sadly, the MX-30 breaks this tradition.

The MX-30 feels like a car that came out 10 to 15 years ago. Braking performance was worse than I've come to expect in a compact SUV in the 2020s, and the chassis responds lazily to inputs from the steering wheel. It needs 8.7 seconds to reach 60 miles per hour from a standstill, which is awfully slow for a modern car, let alone an electric one. It's not that a driver would need to go from zero to 60 miles per hour as quickly as possible during normal driving, but rather that acceleration at any speed is porky. It's a car without joy when moving.

As far as the design goes, the exterior and interior are absolutely beautiful and endearing. Looking at the MX-30, whether from 30 feet away or from the driver’s seat, is the best part of the car. Unfortunately, as a car it also needs to move and do useful things, like deliver you across town to work and pick up groceries. That's where the MX-30 falters. Its cripplingly short range, joyless driving characteristics, and head-bangingly frustrating infotainment system make it better as an object for your viewing pleasure than as a transportation machine.

The car is so cute that not recommending it makes me almost feel like I've offended the poor thing. Uninspiring driving sensations, a so-so infotainment system, and a battery range more suitable for a golf course than a highway all add up to a car whose beauty is skin deep. Mazda markets this as a practical car to be used for commutes and errands, but the lack of range hamstrings the car for all but a small, small slice of the market—those who plan to always stick close to home. 

If you need an EV to be anything more than an always-short-range urban city car, your best move—even if you find the MX-30 endearing and easy on the eyes—is to keep a picture of it on your desk to look at, and then go and buy something else.