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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After years of waiting and many false starts, Formula E is finally going to debut its mid-race charging system, which will give cars a quick boost of energy charging at a rate much faster than current road cars can.
For years now, we’ve been hearing about FIA plans to introduce charging stops to electric racing.
In gas car racing, some series allow mid-race fueling and some don’t. The World Endurance Championship, which runs the 24 Hours of Le Mans, obviously needs to fill up several times during the race. But Formula 1, which hosts shorter races, eliminated mid-race fueling in 2010.
Plans to bring mid-race charging to Formula E started in 2021, when the FIA started kicking around plans for an Electric GT racing series with 700kW charging.
But the FIA already had one electric racing series, Formula E, which had debuted in 2014. At the time, each driver had two cars, and would swap mid-race to a fresh car with new batteries.
Battery-swapping had been considered, but it would be too complicated to set up at temporary race facilities in city downtown areas, as many Formula E tracks are.
Then, in 2018, Formula E debuted a new “Gen 2” car which had a big enough battery not to need a charge mid-race, and later a “Gen 3” car in 2022, which had much stronger regenerative braking, capable of 600kW of braking power. Gen 3 also has an “Attack Mode” feature that lets cars unlock additional power for a short period each race, adding to strategy and mixing up the race order.
That 600kW charging ability could also be used for mid-race charging, so Formula E said that it was working on a system to allow for this. It announced that mid-race charging would come at some point in the 2023 season, but then pushed back those plans until 2024, and pushed them back again, this time with an uncertain date.
The issues involved building the charging system in temporary facilities and ensuring safety of the system (and of pit stops in general, which is always a concern when cars are driving rapidly near people). But after winter testing prior to this season, Formula E now says the system is ready to go.
So, once again, Formula E is ready to announce that mid-race charging is definitely, totally, positively, 100% certain at the upcoming Jeddah E-Prix, on February 14-15 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Formula E thinks that proving this high-power charging technology could help road cars to charge more quickly, which could have myriad benefits for electric cars in general.
The series is calling the system “Pit Boost,” and it will consist of a 34-second pit stop that provides around 10% additional charge to the cars (about 4kWh). While 10% isn’t a lot, 34 seconds is also not a lot of time. For comparison, one of the fastest-charging cars out there, the Ioniq 5, can charge from 10-80% in 18 minutes, which means 10% charge takes 2.5 minutes – five times as long as Formula E cars will manage the feat.
The stop will be mandatory for all drivers to take at some point in the race, and will mean new strategy options for drivers. Taking the stop means getting more energy, which means that your car won’t have to do as much energy saving to get to the end of the race – but it also means giving up your position on track, which can be hard to get back if you do it late in the race.
However, we’ve never seen it happen before, so it will be interesting to see what kind of strategic options develop.
If you’re interested in seeing how it turns out, tune in to the Jeddah E-Prix on February 14-15 to see what happens. It’s a doubleheader race weekend, with night races both on Saturday and Sunday, February 14-15, at 5pm UTC, 9am PST, 12pm EST, and 8pm local time. You can check out how to watch the race in your area by going to Formula E’s “Ways to Watch” section. In the US, Roku should be the most reliable way to watch.
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JackRabbit, the maker of pint-sized electric microbikes, is back with a new product designed to quickly recharge their batteries from pure, uncut photons mainlined into an e-bike directly from the sun. In true independent charging form, the Solar Charging Kit from JackRabbit keeps riders rolling even when there’s not a convenient AC outlet in sight.
Unveiled this week, the Solar Charging Kit consists of a single folding solar panel and a tiny voltage converter that is configured to output 42.0V, which is the exact voltage required by JackRabbit’s little e-bike batteries. There’s also an added USB-A and a USB-C charging port for powering other devices in addition to charging JackRabbit batteries.
“This Solar Charging Kit plugs directly into your bike,” explained the company, “letting you recharge without needing an outlet, but with a speed comparable to the charger that comes with the OG/OG2 (42V, 2A).”
That would mean the panel outputs around 80W of solar power, which the company says can recharge its batteries in just three hours. That fairly quick recharging speed is helped by the fact that JackRabbit’s batteries are a mere 151 Wh, or around a third of the size of most e-bike batteries.
If that sounds small, then you’re right – it is. But JackRabbit is all about going micro, offering barely 25 lb rideables that are easy to store and bring on adventures, even when they aren’t actually being ridden.
With small batteries that fit under the 160Wh limit for many airlines in the US, the batteries can be quickly charged and taken to the widest number of locations. And for riders that want to go further than a single 10-mile (16-km) battery will allow, extra batteries are small enough to fit a pants pocket. The company also offers much larger Rangebuster batteries, though they won’t pass by TSA and make it onto an airplane in your personal item.
It sounds like the Solar Chargking Kit should be able to charge up JackRabbit’s large RangeBuster batteries, though likely in more than three hours.
The $349 Solar Charging Kit is a bit pricier than building something similar yourself, but it’s also safer and more convenient than hacking together your own battery charger since it’s designed to work with JackRabbit’s batteries right out of the box.
Technically it’s only inteded for JackRabbit’s micro e-bikes (themselves technically seated scooters, even if they look and feel more like a typical bike), but it’d probably work for just about any 36V e-bike that requires 42.0V to charge.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen solar charging kits for electric bikes, and it’s a trend that is certainly appreciated by outdoors and camping enthusiasts, festival goers, or anyone who finds themself and their bike spending extended periods in the great, sunny outdoors.
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