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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Tesla has reportedly yet to start testing its robotaxi service in Austin without a safety driver behind the wheel – just weeks before the planned launch.
For months now, Tesla and CEO Elon Musk have been hyping the launch of “Tesla Robotaxi”, a Uber-like ride-hailing service powered by autonomous Tesla vehicles, starting with a launch in Austin, Texas in June.
We have extensively reported that this launch is disappointing compared to what Tesla promised for years: that all its consumer vehicles built since 2016 are capable of self-driving.
Instead, Tesla plans to build an internal fleet of “10-20” Model Ys and have them offer ride-hailing services in a geo-fenced area around Austin, Texas, helped by human teleoperations. This is very similar to what Waymo has been offering in other cities for years, specifically in Austin, for months now.
Even with the significant downgrade in self-driving capabilities promised with this project, there are many doubts about Tesla’s ability to achieve the lesser goal.
That’s because the robotaxi service will be based on Tesla’s ‘Supervised Full Self-Driving’ program, which is currently achieving about 500 miles between critical disengagements fleet-wide, according to the latest crowdsourced data.
Tesla will be able to improve on that by optimizing a version for the geo-fenced area in Austin and it has been training its neural nets for that for months with vehicles going around Austin.
However, a new report now claims that Tesla has yet to start testing its service without safety drivers at the wheel – similar to Tesla’s public ‘Supervised FSD’. The Information wrote in a new report:
Elon Musk’s deadline for launching Tesla’s first robotaxi service, in Austin, Texas, is weeks away, but the company hadn’t started testing its cars without a human safety driver as of last month, according to an engineer close to the testing and a former employee. That’s a crucial step required before Tesla can launch the pilot service for customers.
For comparison, before launching its paid ride service in Austin, Waymo tested its vehicles with safety drivers in the area for 6 months and then without safety drivers for another 6 months.
Waymo has now taken over a significant market share of ride-hailing rides in the Texas capital, but it still has limitations; for example, it doesn’t drive on the interstate.
The report also mentions that Tesla has been working with local emergency services in Austin to develop intervention plans in order to avoid causing issues if its autonomous vehicles fail.
Electrek’s Take
This is the biggest softball goal. It’s a fraction of what was promised, it’s something that others have achieved before. It’s a punt created for Tesla to finally get a “win” in self-driving.
If they can’t even make it, it would be disastrous, but at least, I hope that it will finally open the eyes of many Tesla shareholders to the reality that Tesla is actually behind in autonomous driving and that Musk’s latest claims that Tesla will have “millions of robotaxi on the road” in 2026 are just the same as when he claimed it would happen in 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, and 2019: corporate puffery.
My main concern now is for public safety. I have little hope of US regulators being able to stop Tesla considering Trump is firing anyone who got in Musk’s way after he gave him over $250 million.
If Tesla brings its cowboy approach to this, it could get bad quickly.
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The development of Rivian’s R2 validation builds continues to progress. We know so because the American automaker’s founder and CEO, RJ Scaringe, continues to pepper us with welcome updates with plenty of fantastic images. The latest post features the inner workings of Rivian’s Maximus drive unit, which will propel the upcoming R2 EVs when they hit the market next year.
Another day, another exciting social media update from RJ Scaringe. Nine days ago, the Rivian CEO shared a peek at the company’s new Maximus drive unit, designed to be more compact and efficiently built to help reduce cost-per-unit production.
Our only look was from outside the drive unit’s casing at the time, but it was exciting news nonetheless. As an encore, Scaringe posted photos of the R2 validation builds on a pilot line at the automaker’s facility in Normal, Illinois.
This evening, Scaringe took to Instagram and X once again to share a better look at the inner workings of the Rivian Maximus drive unit. Check it out:
RJ shares more images of Rivian’s Maximus development
Rivian’s CEO posted the three images above, which showcase some interesting perspectives of the developing drive unit. As previously shared by Rivian, Maximus uses a new continuous winding technique that reduces the total welds per stator and thus the total overall cost of building each one.
For comparison, Rivian’s current Enduro drive unit requires 264 stator welds, while Maximus only needs 24. You can see the stator windings in the image above to the left. Scaringe shared excitement in the progress of the Rivian team’s Maximus drive unit as well as some insight in his post:
I love the packaging on Maximus — the drive unit for R2. It has a side mounted inverter that utilizes flat area at the end of the motor to minimize the length of bus bars, keeping them light and efficient. The large planar shape also allows all processing and power electronics to exist on a single printed circuit board.
The inverter chassis closes out the oil cooled motor cavity and seamlessly routes coolant from the power modules to the drive unit’s heat exchanger with no extra parts.
Overall, the inverter part count is reduced by 41% relative to Enduro and structural inverter lid saves more parts and fasteners by also serving as the drive unit mount. I love this design efficiency. (heart emoji)
Looks fantastic, RJ. We can’t wait to see the visual progress of the R2 you share next!
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On today’s thrilling episode of Quick Charge, we’ve a huge spike in global EV sales and a huge dip in Tesla deliveries. Plus a whole bunch of news from Toyota, including an updated bZ that’s just a bit better than before … but is a bit better going to make a big difference?
We’re also on track for more than 1 in 4 new cars sold this year to be electric, with a whole lot more hybrids coming in to make up the difference and drive fuel demand down to a new yearly low. All this, plus the top 5 cheapest EVs to insure when you hit the play button.
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