Mazda developing electric Mazda2

Battery powered Mazda2 supermini to launch in Japan for fleet to lease from 2012.

Auto Express Car Reviews

By Tom Phillips

24th January 2011

Mazda is the latest manufacturer to announce trials of a new battery powered car. The firm has confirmed that it plans to begin field tests of an electric car based on the Mazda2 – called the Demio in the Japanese domestic market – in 2012.

Mazda hopes that its electric Mazda2 will have a range of 124 miles, and the car will be leased to local government departments and fleet customers.

The electric car forms the next step in Mazda’s Building Block Strategy. The first part of this plan begins this year, when the firm’s new, high efficiency SKYACTIV engines and gearboxes begin appearing in production cars. This will launch in tandem with Mazda’s continued plan to reduce the weight but increase the safety of its new products.

The next step in this process will be to introduce brake regeneration systems, then a hybrid powertrain and finally the electric car. The firm believes that electric cars will form the commuter cars of the future, and its project with the Mazda2 EV is designed to increase the firm’s knowledge of electric car usage requirements and electric drive technologies.