Mazda’s MX-30 PHEV is finally coming, with smaller battery and V2L… but only in Europe
Mazda has finally announced their long-rumored MX-30 plug-in hybrid, named the MX-30 R-EV, which uses a small rotary engine as a range extender to supplement a now even smaller battery.
The new MX-30 R-EV was shown at the Brussels Motor Show today, though Mazda’s press release is light on details. All it mentions is that the car will have a 17.8kWh battery good for 85km (53mi) of range on the WLTP test cycle. This battery is half the size of the EV’s 35.5kWh, and is paired to an 830cc rotary engine and a 50 liter (13 gallon) gas tank. It will be available in a new “Edition R” trim and color (pictured above) and will feature 1.5kW of V2L “power supply functionality.”
At first glance, the R-EV’s lower range (with half the battery capacity and less-than-half of the range) might suggest a less efficient vehicle, but if the R-EV carries over the EV’s ~5kWh battery holdback, the two seem almost identical in efficiency. The R-EV is 58kg (127lbs) heavier and slightly more powerful (168hp, up from 143hp) than the EV, so both cars have similar performance.
The R-EV will be capable of 36kW DC fast charging, down from 50kW for the EV. Both of these are pretty pedestrian numbers in this day and age, with 350kW chargers propagating throughout Europe. But PHEVs generally do not rely on DC fast charging when they need a quick fill up, so this is less of an achilles heel for a car with a range extender under the hood.
Mazda will offer drivers a choice of three drive modes to control the engine – “normal” which mostly uses the electric motor until battery charge gets low or the driver floors the accelerator, “EV” which will force the engine to stay off as long as possible, and “charge” which will preferentially run the gas engine so you can maintain a certain battery charge percentage. Drivers can set their own preferred percentage, and this can be used, for example, for driving through various EV-only zones which are propagating around some European city centers.
In terms of price and availability, the R-EV will start at the same base price as the EV, as Mazda says it wants to offer buyers a simpler decision to choose the powertrain that’s best for them, and it should start shipping to various countries next quarter.
Earlier this week, Mazda announced the MX-30 EV is coming back to California after spending the better part of a year missing in action with no comment on whether it would be back for the 2023 model year. In its first model year, Mazda planned to sell a paltry 560 vehicles in California only, and ended up selling 505. This MX-30 EV is not available anywhere else in the US, nor is the newly-announced PHEV.
Electrek’s Take
The MX-30 has had somewhat of a tortured existence so far. First announced as a fully electric car, it was praised for its sleek looks, mature interior, and interesting suicide doors.
But when Mazda started talking about and showing the car, it became more and more clear that it… didn’t really want to make an electric car. Before the car even came out, Mazda announced that it was artificially making it slower “to feel more like a gas car.”
Then, when we drove the car, we noticed a lot of design decisions that seemed far more consistent with having an engine than a battery. Not only was all the electric badging quite temporary-looking, but there is a massive empty space under the hood just waiting to be filled by an engine:
Mazda says that their strategy is to offer appropriate powertrains for each region based on that region’s needs, which has translated into EVs for Europe and California, conventional “mild” gas-powered hybrids in other regions, and PHEVs now for Europe.
But… why? The US has much larger distances, and the US’ “road trip culture” is often cited as something that keeps people (wrongly) away from EVs. PHEVs give drivers the ability to stay on electric drive for most driving, but still have a tank for road tripping, so it seems like this would work for the US.
And in Europe, it seems like electric would work great, with some cities banning internal combustion engines and with the whole continent being covered by a quality train network to get between cities when needed. Europe also has much higher petrol prices than the US, and an acute reason to want to avoid using oil – its main supplier, Russia, has just decided to launch an unjustifiable war in Europe, and much of the oil burned on the continent therefore directly funds that war.
But there’s a hitch – incentives. In Europe, PHEVs are actually more common than in the US, despite the factors mentioned above, because it’s quite common for companies to purchase or lease vehicles to employees as company cars, and the companies get incentives for those cars. These cars are commonly plug-in hybrids, and they also commonly never get plugged in.
Meanwhile, in the US, California requires manufacturers to sell a certain amount of zero emission vehicles or else they have to purchase costly ZEV credits from other automakers, so manufacturers often sell EVs only in California in order to meet these regulations. These half-baked EVs are called “compliance cars,” and they have been a common way for manufacturers to get around California’s ZEV regulation for the last decade.
So it seems that a large part of Mazda’s true rationale for these vehicles isn’t what customers need, but how they can best game the system in each territory.
Which is a shame, since this could be a good PHEV. While we were hoping for a full 35.5kWh paired with a small engine, much like the old BMW i3, 85km/53mi is still longer range than other PHEVs on the market. And it’s enough to cover most people’s daily needs, so it’s entirely possible that many R-EV drivers will be able to go months or even a year without filling up on gas.
But the problem is, there are still lots of people who will just never plug their car in. PHEVs have been found to get much less efficiency than the stickers claim because of this. While it is attractive to think that we could spread a limited battery supply around to more vehicles by putting, say, 3x20kWh PHEVs on the road instead of one 60kWh EV, the calculus breaks down if people don’t plug those PHEVs in. And we just end up with a bunch of slightly-more-efficient gas cars on the road, using up batteries that could have been put into something that doesn’t use fossil fuels.
We also like that Mazda has announced price parity between the R-EV and the EV. Many other vehicles have a cheaper PHEV, which makes little sense since you’re buying two powertrains instead of one. The BMW i3 again did this right – the PHEV was actually more expensive than the EV, underlining that the EV is the better deal, both for buyers and for the environment. And the i3 was connected to a tiny gas tank, again underlining that it was to be used as a backup, instead of the massive 50L tank on the MX-30.
And most of all, it doesn’t make sense that the car is only available in Europe. Mazda, you screwed up with the MX-30 EV, and everyone knows it. It’s not great. But you have a good-looking car which was designed to be a PHEV from the start, which you could theoretically offer at a competitive price and with a better package (i.e., larger EV range) than competing vehicles.
But, like the EV itself, it kind of feels like you don’t actually want to sell it. Prove us wrong. If you’re proud of this product, let people buy it.
Now… electrify the Miata, next. Please? Come on. We’ve been asking for so long!
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Global renewable developer and energy giant RWE has halted its US offshore wind operations “for the time being” because of the “political environment” the Trump administration has created.
RWE, Germany’s biggest electricity producer, said in March that it had dialed back its US offshore wind activities. But now, CEO Marcus Krebber said in a speech transcript, which he’ll deliver at the company’s Annual General Meeting in Essen on April 30, that its US offshore wind business is now closed (but it wasn’t all bad news):
In the US, where we have stopped our offshore activities for the time being, our business in onshore wind, solar energy, and battery storage has so far been developing very dynamically. At the start of this year, we reached an important milestone when our US generation capacity hit the 10 gigawatt mark. The construction of a further 4 gigawatts is secured.
He went on to say that renewables have created regional value and jobs, but that the company remains “cautious given the political developments.” RWE has introduced more stringent requirements for future US investments:
All necessary federal permits must be in place. Tax credits must be safe harbored and all relevant tariff risks mitigated. In addition, onshore wind and solar projects must have secured offtake at the time of the investment decision. Only if these conditions are met will further investments be possible, given the political environment.
About half of RWE’s installed renewable capacity is in the US, where it’s the third-largest renewable energy company through its subsidiary, RWE Clean Energy. RWE holds the rights to develop US offshore wind projects in New York, Louisiana, and California.
RWE paid $1.1 billion for the New York lease area in 2022, where it’s meant to develop the 3 gigawatt (GW) Community Offshore Wind with the UK’s National Grid. Community Offshore Wind was projected to come online in the early 2030s and expected to power more than a million homes.
The developer paid $5.6 billion for the Louisiana lease in the Gulf of Mexico in 2023 as the lone bidder for development rights, and the Canopy Offshore Wind project off Northern California was not expected to be completed for another decade.
Read more: Trump admin halts $5 billion NY offshore wind project mid-build
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It’s that time of year again, time for events across the country to show off electric vehicles at Drive Electric Earth Month.
Drive Electric Earth Month is an offshoot of Drive Electric Week, a long-running annual tradition hosting meetups mostly in the US, but also occasionally in other countries. It started as Drive Electric Earth Day, but since not every event can happen on the same day, they went ahead and extended it to encompass “Earth Month” events that happen across the month of April. It’s all organized by Plug In America, the Sierra Club, the Electric Vehicle Association, EV Hybrid Noire, and Drive Electric USA.
Events consist of general Earth Day-style community celebrations, EV Ride & Drives where you can test drive several EVs in one place, and opportunities to talk to EV owners and ask them questions about what it’s like to live with an EV, away from the pressure of a dealership.
This month, there are 158 events registered across the US and 1 in Mexico (including one online webinar about things to consider when purchasing an EV).
Events have been happening all month, but the biggest weekend is this upcoming one, APril 26-27.
One really neat event was the Asheville event, which showcased the resiliency of EVs in an area devastated by Hurricane Helene, which was made more severe by climate change. That event was attended by the Rivian R1T which famously got dragged 100 feet submerged in mud and came out running fine.
But the bulk of the events happened on the weekends surrounding Earth Day, April 22, so there were several last weekend and will be even more this upcoming weekend.
There are plenty of events in the big cities where you’d expect, but Plug In America wanted to highlight a few of the events in smaller places around the country. Here’s a sampling of upcoming events:
- Big Island EV – Cruise and Picnic in Waimea, HI on April 26, 10am-1pm – EV drivers will congregate in various places around the Big Island (Kona, Waimea, Waikoloa and Hilo), then drive up Saddle Road to the Gil Kahele Recreation Area on Mauna Kea for a potluck and a chance to talk about the experience of owning EVs on the Big Island.
- Santa Barbara Earth Day 2025 and Green Car Show in Santa Barbara, CA on April 26-27, 11am-8pm – This is part of Santa Barbara’s Earth Day celebration, which routinely attracts 30,000 participants and is one of the longest-running Earth Day celebrations on the planet. The Green Car Show includes ride & drives and an “Owners Corner” where owners can showcase their EVs and attendees can check them out and ask questions.
- Earth Day’25 – EV’s role in a sustainable future in Queretaro City, Mexico on April 26, 9am-4pm – The sole Mexican event, this is a combined in-person/online seminar at the Querétaro Institute of Technology.
- Norman Earth Day Festival in Norman, OK on April 27, 12-5pm – Another municipal Earth Day festival, with hands-on activities for kids to learn about the environment. A portion of the parking lot reserved for an EV car show for EV owners who pre-register to show off their vehicles.
- Oregon Electric Vehicle Association Test Drive & Information Expo in Portland, OR on April 27, 10am-4pm – This one is at Daimler Truck’s North American HQ, and will have several EVs for test drives, owner displays (including DIY gas-to-EV conversions), and keynote presentations by EV experts. They’ll even have a 1914 Detroit Electric EV available for test rides!
- And, we at Electrek want to give a shoutout to Rove’s EV Drive Days in Santa Ana 10am-3pm April 28 – ROVE is the company behind the “full-service” EV charging concept that we’ve talked about several times here on Electrek, and we like what they’re doing for EV charging. They’ve hosted a few community events, and this is their contribution to Earth Month.
Each event has a different assortment of activities (e.g. test drives won’t be available at every event, generally just the larger ones attended by local dealerships), so be sure to check the events page to see what the plan is for your local event.
These events have offered a great way to connect with owners and see the newest electric vehicle tech, and even get a chance to do test rides and drives in person. Attendees got to hear unfiltered information from actual owners about the benefits and trials of owning EVs, allowing for longer and more genuine (and often more knowledgeable) conversations than one might normally encounter at a dealership.
And if you’re an owner – you can show off your car and answer those questions for interested onlookers.
To view all the events and see what’s happening in your area, you can check out the list of events or the events map. You can also sign up to volunteer at your local events, and if you plan to show off your electric car, you can RSVP on each event page and list the vehicle that you plan to show (or see what other vehicles have already registered).
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