We’re finally getting an ‘electrified’ Miata in 2026
Mazda has confirmed that the next-generation MX-5 Miata will come in 2026 and will be “electrified.” Though the automaker stopped short of saying what level of electrification that will entail – hybrid, plug-in hybrid, or full electric.
The confirmation is light on details, though Mazda said it would work with Rohm Semiconductor to develop electric motors and with Envision AESC for batteries.
Back in 2019, we reported that Mazda was considering electrifying the next Miata. At that time, it wasn’t clear whether it was talking about fully electric or hybrid – and with this news, it still isn’t. But we suspect that it will probably be a conventional or plug-in hybrid, rather than fully electric.
Mazda’s branding and R&D chiefs at the time stated that the car and brand needed to shift towards being more eco-friendly, but that the main goal of the MX-5 is to remain lightweight, which is a challenge with the weight of electric car batteries.
Since then, Mazda has stated that the Miata would eventually be electrified, but now we’ve got a date: 2026 model year, which means the car will likely be on the road in mid-2025.
The Miata is an exceptionally lightweight car – the 2023 MX-5 model has a curb weight of around 2,400lbs. For comparison to some light EVs, the original Tesla Roadster, which employed expensive and lightweight carbon fiber extensively, weighed ~2,800lbs, and the similar Caterham Project V concept will weigh ~2,600.
Not only that, but the Miata is an affordable car, not just a lightweight one. Both of the aforementioned EVs are priced in the six figure range, whereas the MX-5 starts for under $30k.
But there are other lower-priced lightweight EVs, like the 3,000lb Mini Cooper SE at $30k and the defunct 2,900lb BMW i3 which first started at $42k.
So there is certainly a challenge here, but it’s not unachievable, especially as EV batteries continue to improve in energy density. With modern batteries, a shorter-range, lightweight Miata could be doable.
But regardless, given Mazda’s history with electrification, we suspect this will be a hybrid model rather than fully electric.
Mazda has been one of the slowest in the industry to adopt EV technology. Japanese automakers in general have been laggards on EV tech, and Mazda has the least-ambitious 2030 EV goal in the US. Its first EV, the MX-30, was not a great effort, and only sold 505 cars in its initial run (it came back this year, but has only sold 66 units).
On the other hand, Mazda has claimed it wants to sell only EVs and hybrids by 2030, and more recently, Mazda did pull back the curtain on its EV plans and showed a very cool “Vision study” concept, a sleek, low, two-door roadster which looked like it could be the evolution of the Miata:
While that concept is light on details, it clearly looks a lot like a Miata, and was released alongside a discussion on Mazda’s EV plans, so most thought that it would turn into some sort of electrified Miata.
As for the MX-30, one reason it wasn’t great is because its clear that the car was designed to be a PHEV, and only made into an EV for compliance with California’s emissions rules. The MX-30 eventually came out as a PHEV overseas, and it might actually be pretty good as a PHEV.
While hybrids and PHEVs are more complex than EVs – stuffing two powertrains into a car instead of one – the reduction in battery weight can result in lower overall weight for the vehicle but still give some of the benefits of electrification, like partial zero-emission operation (in the case of a PHEV) and quicker acceleration from electric motors (for both hybrids and PHEVs).
So having an electric motor onboard in any form will definitely help the Miata’s famous fun factor, which has always been a little bit held back by its small 2L 4-cylinder engine.
Electrek’s Take
Longtime readers may know that any time Mazda comes up, there’s exactly one thing that we at Electrek want to hear: that the Miata is going electric. It comes up every time anyone talks about Mazda in our newsroom. And we get a lot of comments here saying the same.
So obviously, this comes as great news to us. We’ve been begging for it for years, and it’s finally here (well… in 2026).
However, Mazda is being cagey here by using the word “electrified.” This is a bit of a weasel word in the automotive industry, to make automaker electric car efforts look more advanced than they are. PHEVs don’t actually lower emissions as much as they claim, as we’ve seen in multiple studies, and conventional hybrids still get 100% of their energy from gasoline, and thus don’t really aid a whole lot in getting us off of fossil fuels, which is required in the face of climate change.
We’re sure that a hybrid Miata will be more fun than a gas version, as long as Mazda doesn’t intentionally slow it down to feel more like a gas car… as it did with the MX-30.
But we’re also sure that a proper all-electric Miata would be even more fun than the hybrid, and simpler too because it doesn’t have to fit two powertrains into the same car.
While weight is certainly a concern, and so is cost, these both can be solved by using a smaller battery. As much as the market seems to think it needs enormous range numbers on every car, the Miata isn’t a car you’re going to take the family on a roadtrip in anyway, and fast charging would be sufficient to allow people to get out and stretch their legs every once in a while.
As a Tesla Roadster owner myself (I really like small cars), people often ask if I wish the car had more range, or Supercharging capability, and my answer is: the car is so tiny that I wouldn’t take it on a roadtrip anyway, and frankly, I’d rather have a lighter battery than more range.
So Mazda could employ this option – a smaller, cheaper, lighter battery, mounted low in the car, with an engine in the rear (and thus no driveshaft tunnel, saving weight and complexity and interior space).
It probably won’t be 2,400lbs, and it probably won’t be $30,000 (at least in the production numbers Mazda would likely target), but I have faith that Mazda could get in the ballpark of those two numbers, while offering a totally unique and improved driving experience from the classic Miatas.
I won’t hold my breath, cause I still doubt we’ll see it, but I’d love to be surprised.
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Over the weekend, Tesla began offering many Cybertruck trade-in estimated values above the original purchase price, apparently due to a glitch in its system.
Tesla offers online trade-in estimates for individuals considering purchasing a vehicle from them.
Over the last few days, Cybertruck owners who submitted their vehicles through the system were surprised to see Tesla offering extremely high valuations on the vehicle, often above what they originally paid for the electric truck.
Here are a few examples:
- $79,200 for a 2025 Cybertruck AWD with 18,000 miles. Since this is a 2025 model year, it was eligible for the tax credit and Tesla is offering the same price as new without incentive.
- Here Tesla offered $118,800 for a 2024 Cybertruck ‘Cyberbeast’ tri-motor with 21,000 miles.
- In this example, Tesla offers $11,000 more than the owner originally paid for a 2024 Cybertruck.
The trade-in estimates made no sense. Tesla has been known to offer more attractive estimates online and then come lower with the official final offer, but this is on a whole different level.
Some speculated that Tesla’s trade-in estimate system was malfunctioning, while others thought Tesla was indirectly recalling early Cybertrucks.
It appears to be the former.
Some Tesla Cybertruck owners who tried to go through a new order with their Cybertruck as a trade-in were told by Tesla advisors that the system was “glitching” and they would not be honoring those prices.
Tesla told buyers that it would be refunding its usually “non-refundable” order fee.
Electrek’s Take
That’s a weird glitch. I assume that it was trying to change how the trade-in value would be estimated and the new math didn’t work for the Cybertruck for whatever reason.
It’s the only thing that makes sense to me.
The Cybertruck’s value is already quite weird due to the fact that Tesla still has new vehicles made in 2024, which are not eligible for the tax credit incentive, while the new ones made in 2025 are eligible.
There’s also the Foundation Series, which bundles many features for a $20,000 higher price.
All these things affect the value and can make it hard to compare with new Cybertrucks offered with 0% interest.
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![At $28,000 off, is the Jeep Wagoneer S the best EV deal going? [update]](https://i0.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/06/jeep_wagoneer_deals.jpg?resize=1200,628&quality=82&strip=all&ssl=1)
Like a 90s “gifted” kid that was supposed to be a lot of things, the electric Jeep Wagoneer S never really found its place — but when dealers started discounting the Jeep brands forward-looking flagship by nearly $25,000 back in June, I wrote that it might be time to give the go-fast Wagoneer S a second look.
This month, the discounts are even better.
UPDATE 23AUG25: I found you some even better EV deals!
Whether we’re talking about Mercedes-Benz, Cerberus, Fiat, or even Enzo Ferrari, outsiders have labeled Jeep as a potentially premium brand that could, “if managed properly,” command luxury-level prices all over the globe. That hasn’t happened, and Stellantis is just the latest in a long line of companies to sink massive capital into the brand only to realize that people will not, in fact, spend Mercedes money on a Jeep.
That said, the Jeep Wagoneer S is not a bad car (and neither is its totally different, hideously massive, ICE-powered Wagoneer sibling, frankly). Built on the same Stellantis STLA Large vehicle platform that underpins the sporty Charger Daytona EVs, the confusingly-named Wagoneer S packs dual electric motors putting out almost 600 hp. That’s good enough to scoot the ‘ute 0 to 60 mph in a stomach-turning 3.5 seconds and enough, on paper, to convince Stellantis executives that they had developed a real, market-ready alternative to the Tesla Model Y.
With the wrong name and a sky-high starting price of $66,995 (not including the $1,795 destination fee), however, that demand didn’t materialize, leaving the Wagoneer S languishing on dealer lots across the country.
That could be about to change, however, thanks to big discounts on Wagoneer S being reported at CDJR dealers in several states:
- Jeff Belzer’s in Minnesota has a 2025 Wagoneer S Limited with a $67,790 MSRP for $39,758 ($28,032 off)
- Troncalli CDJR in Georgia has a 2025 Wagoneer S Limited with a $67,590 MSRP for $42,697 ($24,893 off)
- Whitewater CDJR in Minnesota has a 2025 Wagoneer S Limited with a $67,790 MSRP for $43,846 ($23,944 off)
- Antioch CDJR in Illinois has a 2025 Wagoneer S Limited with a $67,790 MSRP for $44,540 ($23,250 off)
“Stellantis bet big on electric versions of iconic American brands like Jeep and Dodge, but consumers aren’t buying the premise,” writes CDG’s Marcus Amick. “(Stellantis’ dealer body) is now stuck with expensive EVs that need huge discounts to move, eating into already thin margins while competitors focus on [more] profitable gas-powered vehicles.”
All of which is to say: if you’ve found yourself drawn to the Jeep Wagoneer S, but couldn’t quite stomach the $70,000+ window stickers, you might want to check in with your local Jeep dealer and see how you feel about it at a JCPenneys-like 30% off!
Jeep Wagoneer S gallery
Original content from Electrek; images via Stellantis.
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Multinational equipment brand SANY just launched a clever new 50-ton reach stacker that pairs gravity and an F1-style KERS system to generate electricity, improve operating efficiency, and reduce costs. The best part: they’re putting that smart tech to work by helping clean up (and shore up) the grid.
Short for Kinetic Energy Recovery System, KERS was a staple of Formula 1 in the late aught and 2010s. Essentially an advanced form of regenerative braking, KERS captured the kinetic energy of a car at speed that would normally be lost as heat when the brake pads pressed against the brake discs. Instead of heat, KERS converted that energy into electricity (storing it in a battery or flywheel), to be deployed later.
Sebastian Vettel explains KERS
In practice, KERS gave drivers an extra boost of horsepower at the push of a button, enabling them to attack or defend their position on track and adding a fresh strategic element to the sport. In SANY’s case, that stored power is fed back into the reach stacker’s electric hydraulic system, reducing pressure loss across the high-pressure setup by 50%, and lowering the machine’s overall energy consumption by more than 60%.
Energy recovery is a key feature. The potential energy of the boom, lifting gear and energy storage cabinets during the boom’s descent can be recovered efficiently with an overall recovery efficiency of over 65%. That means every 1 kWh of consumption in lifting can be recovered by 0.4 kWh during descent.
The 50t reach stacker is available with a 512 kWh swappable battery pack that’s compatible with other SANY heavy equipment assets, and supports both DC fast charging when swapping isn’t practical or (for whatever reason) desirable.
On a single charge and backed by the onboard KERS, that’s good enough for the machine can lift and move containers for more than 7 continuous hours, which SANY claims significantly reducing downtime for charging compared to other, similar equipment assets.
The new SANY reach stacker can stack six 50-ton containers, greatly enhancing a site’s container and battery storage density within a limited space. The first units will reach unnamed customers building out a utility-scale energy storage project by the end of this month.
Electrek’s Take
All the great stuff I was saying about the new 65-tonne XCMG still holds true for the SANY (especially when they take the wraps off their own 65t BESS-specific unit later this year), but the SANY adds smart battery swap tech and what seems to be more efficient operations, too.
Regardless of which one you choose, it seems like the available options for reach stacker operators are just getting better and better!
SOURCE | IMAGES: SANY.
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