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by pornel 1260 days ago
It's the worst EV on the market. It's only a compliance car, not something they expect anyone to drive.

Toyota/Subaru aren't much better. Japanese carmakers seem to hope that BEVs are only a fad.

1 comments

Why do you think it is the worst on the market?
It’s Doug DeMuro’s Worst Car of the Year. Every other review I’ve seen is also overwhelmingly negative.

It has a range of a “city car”, but a price of EVs with double the range.

It has max 50kW DC charging, while the competition has >100kW speeds. This makes the short range even more limiting.

It’s not even powerful, even though high torque is the one easy trick for EVs.

It’s a conversion of a gas car, not a dedicated platform, which wastes cabin and storage space. Mazda failed to keep the same front/rear weight balance making the car reportedly handle poorly.

It’s technically at the level of 2009 Renault Zoe or the old Leaf, but for a price of 2019 eNiro or the current Kona and Cupra Born.

> It has a range of a “city car”, but a price of EVs with double the range.

I agree that the price is too high, but that is the case for all EVs

> It’s a conversion of a gas car, not a dedicated platform

Maybe because the platform was so safe/good... I love my current Mazda CX-5 (not EV)

I don't doubt you love your CX-5, but I can't emphasize enough how much of a fuck-up the CX-30 EV is.

Platform matters. BEV platforms are skateboards with flat floor and wheels basically at the very corners. OTOH CX-30 has an empty transmission tunnel taking up cabin space, and is so cramped they couldn't even fit normal-sized rear doors, and it's almost a 2-seater. Dedicated EVs of the same length have full-sized doors and spacious rear seats.

Mazda took out the engine, and didn't rearrange or rebalance anything else to match. No extra storage. They just left a hole and dangling cables under the hood. They've taken a front-heavy car platform and unbalanced it by making the the rear heavier.

EVs are expensive mainly because of batteries, but this one has a half-sized battery for a price of a full-sized one. You're not even paying for a better rest of the car. It's just a mediocre Mazda with a low-end EV tech that is 10 years behind. The EV side of it is really really bad. Old models of Zoe and Leaf that you can get for <$10K have this level of range and performance.

"one easy trick" is harmful for public road IMO