Mazda delays next-gen EV until 2029 ...at the earliest
The Japanese brand was supposed to launch the first model on its new EV architecture in 2025
New reports suggest Mazda is delaying the launch of the first EV based on its highly important new scalable architecture until 2029, at the earliest. The car was expected to arrive next year, although only after being pushed back from its original launch date of 2025.
Mazda has not confirmed the reports, which originated from Japanese media, that also suggest the company is revising its product strategy for Europe and the U.S. to focus more on hybrids due to higher demands, resulting in its next-generation EVs being delayed.
Changes in government policies on both sides of the Atlantic, such as the EU axing its 2035 ban on new petrol and diesel car sales last month, was supposedly a key factor in Mazda’s decision.
When asked for comment, the Japanese firm shared this statement with Auto Express: “This information has not been announced by Mazda. We continue technological development of in-house BEVs based on our multi-solution strategy, and we will decide the introduction timing while closely monitoring regulatory trends in each country and changes in customer needs.”
Mazda’s first attempt at an electric car was the quirky/famously flawed MX-30, which was killed off in May 2025 but you can pick one up for less than £10,000 through our Buy A Car service.
The company is still ramping up its efforts in the EV market, with the 6e saloon and the CX-6e mid-size SUV – its rivals to Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y – both coming to the UK this year. However they’re based on a platform from Chinese manufacturer Changan, not an in-house-designed Mazda architecture. They’re also made in China, whereas Mazda's next-generation EVs are expected to be built in Japan.
Mazda announced it was developing its own dedicated electric-car platform, the very matter-of-factly named Mazda EV-scalable architecture, back in 2021. At the time, it said this would be used as the basis for several new models launching between 2025 and 2030.
Some time later, Mazda shifted its timeframe and said the first of this next generation of EVs would instead arrive in 2027. Auto Express has been told the new architecture will be ready towards the end of next year however, as these media reports suggest, that doesn’t mean the first car based on it will be entering production at the same time.
In an exclusive interview with Auto Express last year, deputy general manager of R&D Mazda Europe, Christian Schultze, spoke about the challenges the company had faced while developing the scalable architecture: “EV technology is not something stable. So while you're developing, things are changing [and advancing].”
The “availability of resources and expertise” also posed a challenge, which isn’t surprising for a smaller manufacturer such as Mazda, which isn’t part of a major automotive group like VW.
“That's why we decided that this launch plan of vehicles we are having right now with partner [technology] and with our own vehicles gives us opportunities, and a certain relief and the ability to do it right.”
Using Changan’s EPA1 platform doesn’t give Mazda total freedom to create whatever shape and size of EV it might want, but it “gives us now the right car we need at this point in time,” says Schultze.
He also highlighted some of the “disadvantages of being faster” when it comes to developing EVs, because “some [other manufacturer’s architectures] have already disappeared, or have been recognised as too expensive or too heavy and so forth. We give ourselves some more time to prepare the best possible solution.”
Mazda says it will be able to efficiently build electric cars of all sizes based on this one scalable platform, similar to what Volvo can do with its new SPA3 architecture or the Volkswagen Group with its tried-and-tested MEB underpinnings. However, Mazda still hasn’t said what the first model based on the new architecture will be.
We’re all but certain it will be an electric SUV of some description, but not the same size as the new CX-6e to avoid making that obsolete or cannibalising sales of both.
Moritz Oswald, product planning supervisor for Mazda in Europe, told Auto Express: “When we develop cars, we always look at the customers. So we look at our customer base, we try to make sure that we can safeguard our loyal customers and we try to expand to new customers.”
He continued: “So these cars [6e and CX-6e] that we are now launching, they are still true Mazdas and they deliver on every attribute that is important for us. And the next car, even if it's built really from us in probably Hiroshima, let's see, it will also be exactly that, a true Mazda. So in the eyes of the customers, this will just be the next generation.
“Of course we need to make sure that our portfolio is targeting different customers,” he went on. “And I think if you look at it right now, with CX-5, CX-60 and CX-6e, we have quite a distinctive portfolio.
“You could say they’re quite close, at least from a size perspective,” he said. “But if you dive a little bit deeper, or you imagine a customer going into the showroom, they will very quickly understand the differences between those. And that will be true also when we launch the [next EV].”
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