Mazda MX-30 R-EV long-term test

The car Mazda MX-30 R-EV Makoto Run by Allan Muir, managing editor

Why we’re running it To see how much more usable this quirky small SUV is when it's a plug-in hybrid rather than a regular electric model

Needs to Be more than just an urban runabout, successfully combining the refinement and lower running costs of an electric car with the ability to tackle longer trips without hassle

Mileage 4890 List price £35,895 Target Price £34,193 Price as tested £37,895 Test economy 63.7mpg Official economy 282.5mpg

16 July 2024 – Riding an MPG rollercoaster

Although I’ve run plenty of fully electric cars over the years, my experience with plug-in hybrids was limited prior to the arrival of my Mazda MX-30 R-EV. And the up-and-down nature of its fuel economy is taking some time to digest. 

My car’s average economy had been climbing steadily (getting as high as 108mpg so far), because I hadn’t done any long journeys for a few weeks and had been running exclusively on electric power. It’s quite gratifying to watch the economy figure going up no matter how fast or far I drive in EV mode, and I assume it would continue on that trajectory indefinitely if I only ever did trips of less than 53 miles and topped up the battery after each one. 

I say ‘53 miles’ deliberately, because that’s the official electric range of the MX-30 R-EV, and it’s very close to what I’m actually getting out of each top-up from my home wallbox charger. That’s a useful enough distance for a week or two’s worth of commuting and pottering around town for me.

Unsurprisingly, the fuel economy drops equally steadily on longer trips with the rotary petrol engine acting as a generator to keep the electric motor and battery supplied with electricity. On a couple of recent out-of-town journeys with the car in Normal mode (in which the engine turns itself on and off as required to maintain a roughly 50% state of charge at motorway speeds), I’ve recorded around 52mpg between brims of the fuel tank, including some electric-only running. That isn’t bad, I suppose. However, if you start a journey with a depleted battery or run the engine almost continuously in Charge mode (to boost the battery level as high as 100%) this figure can be slashed to a disappointing 35mpg or less.

Under normal circumstances, I doubt I’d ever need (or want) to fully charge the battery using the petrol engine; the car keeps going as normal even when the battery is flat. The other thing to remember is that the MX-30 R-EV can be rapid charged at rates of up to 50kW, so I also have the option of plugging it in if I stop somewhere with a convenient DC public charger.

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