Mazda 6e Review 2025

After the frankly quite odd Mazda MX-30, the Japanese brand is back with another EV, this time with help from its Chinese-based joint venture with Changan. The result is something that might look like a Mazda, but doesn't feel like one at all, which is a shame. We explain all in our full Mazda 6e review. 

There's an expectation of what a Mazda should feel like to drive. The Japanese firm has long prided itself on making all of its products, not just the Mazda MX-5 sports car, great to drive. Elements such as steering weight and feedback, well-balanced handling and pleasant to use controls that fall in easy reach from the driver's seat. The exception to rile is this Mazda 6e. 

Even before you set off, alarm bells start to ring when you learn that that turning on the windscreen wipers or adjusting the door mirrors requires multiple prods of the massive central touchscreen — it seems very un-Mazda and more Tesla-like. And then you drive the 6e and experience its vague steering and suspension that's somehow both floaty and quite uncomfortable. Again, that's not very Mazda.

If you've owned a recent-ish Mazda then you need to forgo any expectations of the 6e being similar beyond its badging and styling. That's because technically, it's not a 'proper' Mazda, but the product of the firm's joint-venture with Chinese car firm Changan, being based on a model not sold here called the Deepal L07.

The car's already been on sale for a while in China as the Mazda EZ-6, before heading to Europe with additional development to make it more suitable for the market here. We think it could do with further fettling — and it may yet get some before landing in the UK in 2026 — but it's not all bad news as far as the Mazda 6e is concerned.

For one thing, it ties in with Mazda's Kodo design philosophy, although it's less distinctive at the rear, looking more similar to the Deepal it's based on. The interior has a minimalistic design although it's gone too far with this and the absence of physical controls, as already alluded to, plus the tan suede upholstery option makes a welcome alternative to blacks and dark greys. 

Although UK pricing and specifications haven't yet been released, its cost in other European countries points to the car starting at just over £40,000, helping offset some of its foibles. That looks like a keen price when you need at least £50,000 to buy a Volkswagen ID.7.

Speaking of rivals, while SUVs dominate the EV space, there are a number of other alternatives to the 6e. The Tesla Model 3 is the most obvious rival but if you're a particularly keen driver, there's the BMW i4 to consider. The Hyundai Ioniq 6 is only slightly more expensive than the Mazda's anticipated starting point and offers similar electric driving range. 

While a lot of those rivals come with many motor/battery options, you only get two with the Mazda 6e, comprising an unnamed entry-level model and a Long Range version with a bigger battery pack. The power outputs of each are very similar and not particularly special, with the fastest managing the 0-62mph sprint in an acceptable 7.6 seconds. 

Mazda 6e: Range and charging

There's nothing unusual about offering two different battery sizes as Mazda does for the 6e, with the entry-level car offering 298 miles of running on a full charge and the Long Range version giving up to 343 miles. What is weird is just how different the charging rates are for each.

The standard car has a relatively competitive rapid charging capacity of 165kW, making a 10-80% top-up possible in 24 minutes. The Long Range version, offers barely more than half of that capability, running out of ideas at just 90kW. A lot of electric vans and cheap city cars do better, while most rivals to the 6e make 90kW seem very miserly. 

The problem, as we understand it, is due to the different type of battery used in the 6e Long Range. It means that the same 10-80% stop is going to take 47 minutes, or almost twice as long.

Recharging at home using a 7.4kW wallbox will take just over 9 hours in the standard car and just under 11 in the Long Range version. Charging this way also allows you to take advantage of various energy suppliers' EV-friendly tariffs.

Bank on it taking about four times as long using a regular three-pin socket, something that generally isn't recommended for the sake of your home electricity supply's health. 

This brand's approach to making every car in its range drive brilliantly unfortunately ends with the Mazda 6e. You can tell it's a product of its Changang Mazda joint venture, built using a platform sourced from elsewhere, because it doesn't feel anything like any other wholly Mazda-developed car on sale.

The suspension offers a strange mix of being both floaty and wallowy yet also uncomfortable, with the ride never settling down, tackling larger imperfections in the road surface with a particular lack of grace. There's a constant jiggling feeling that just never goes away. 

Drive it quickly and the Mazda6e soon feels out of its depth in a way that the Volkswagen ID.7 or the BMW i4 simply won't. It always feels as though the car takes a moment or two to react to your inputs. 

Not everyone is interested in driving in a spirited manner, of course, but it's not like the 6e is rewarding to drive sedately and not just because of the ride problems. Refinement at speed is sub-par and the brake pedal is not well-calibrated, with the first part of its travel not doing much at all before the brakes bite sharply. This makes it difficult to smoothly come to a stop. 

Mazda says it further developed the Chinese-market version before bringing it to Europe as the 6e, which begs the question 'how poor was it previously?'. The one caveat is that due to its later launch in the UK, there might yet be some additional tweaks to the cars coming here. 

There's a choice of two battery sizes for the Mazda 6e and your decision about which to choose will also dictate the output of the rear-mounted electric motor.

The standard Mazda 6e produces 258PS and 320Nm of torque for a perfectly respectable 7.6-second 0-62mph time. 

Upgrading to the Mazda 6e Long Range doesn't bring extra performance as is the norm with other manufacturers' cars. Instead, output is a slightly less potent 245PS output although torque remains the same at 320Nm. Its 0-62mph time drops to 7.8 seconds. 

The Mazda 6e Long Range feels brisk enough once it gets going but that's the issue — the time that takes. There's a frustrating pause between putting your foot down and anything happening, which you need to bear in mind before committing to a modest gap when pulling onto a roundabout or out of a side turning. 

It's slightly more responsive in Sport mode but the delay is still there. There's also a disconcerting feeling of the car continuing to accelerate for a moment when you lift off the throttle pedal.

The Mazda 6e was awarded a full five-star rating by Euro NCAP, with strong scores of 93% for both the adult occupant and child occupant categories. All versions come with nine airbags and plenty of driving assistance systems as standard, including adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assistance, blind-spot monitoring and autonomous emergency braking.

The lane-assistance system isn't great, doing nothing at times when you might expect it to, and on other occasions aggressively tugging the steering when misidentifying imperfections in the road surface as lane markings. It also requires several steps in the complex infotainment system to turn it off. 

Both versions of the Mazda 6e are rated to tow braked trailer loads of up to 1500kg.

That's similar to the Volkswagen ID.7 and the BMW i4, as well as being better than the 1000kg maximum of the Tesla Model 3. 

The Mazda 6e's 466-litre boot is small compared with the Volkswagen ID.7's 532-litre load space but it's not far off what you get in a BMW i4. You also get something not available in either — a storage area under the bonnet, or a frunk if you don't mind the Americanism. It offers 72 litres of storage space and has a drain plug at the bottom, so you can chuck wet charging cables in it and not worry about water accumulating.

Like the i4 and ID.7, the 6e is a five-door car with a tailgate to access the boot. It's an arrangement that proves more practical than the saloon-style separate boot lid arrangement found on the Hyundai Ioniq 6. Usefully, the Mazda's load space isn't compromised by the rear suspension intruding into the sides of the boot as seen in the BMW i4.

The Mazda's folding rear bench seat only folds in a 60/40-split when 40/20/40 is the norm for other cars of this size. When folded, the total volume is 1074 litres.

Rear legroom is very generous and headroom is decent, but the floor is high, which could make longer journeys uncomfortable for any taller passengers back there. 

Throughout our drive, there was a persistent but, thankfully, fairly muted rattle coming from somewhere further back in the cabin, which didn't fill us with confidence about the Mazda 6e's build quality.

More immediate surroundings appear to be made from decent enough materials but how well that suede-like fabric will wear the miles is an unknown at this early stage. 

All versions of the Mazda 6e come with a 14.6-inch touchscreen infotainment system. It has more of a feel of a tablet than a system specifically designed for a car, with a bewildering array of applications and many submenus.

Mazda has been lauded for resisting the trend of integrating climate control functions within its infotainment screen, instead keeping physical buttons from them, but that's unfortunately changed with the 6e.

You need to use its screen for many more functions, including controlling the headlights, the door mirror adjustments and even the windscreen wipers. Such nonsense should be left to Tesla — it makes for an annoying and distracting time from behind the wheel. At least the screen quickly responds to touch, but ideally it should be used a lot less on the move than you're forced to. 

We also experienced issues when connecting a phone to Android Auto, with the system telling us every few minutes that the battery on the device was running low, despite being at over 70% at all times and placed on the car's own wireless charging pad...

In better news, the 14-speaker Sony sound system is decent, although the exterior speaker behind the front bumper is an odd choice. 

To the side of the infotainment screen is a 10.2-inch digital instrument cluster, which is nothing particularly special in terms of graphical features. Displaying electrical energy consumption in Wh/mi rather than the more usual mi/kWh is another odd choice. 

While we're awaiting confirmation of UK pricing, we can look at how much the car costs elsewhere in Europe and make an educated guess. The starting price of the Mazda 6e shouldn't be too much over £40,000, which makes it look like good value when it's more like £51,000 for the entry-level Volkswagen ID.7 and upwards of £47,000 for the Hyundai Ioniq 6. 

You should be getting a high level of specification for that amount but with poorer driving manners. That's something you'll have to weigh up if you're happy with. 

All EVs are now subject to the same Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) as combustion-engined cars, meaning the Mazda 6e will be liable for the same £195 a year bill.

There's an extra sting in the tail, because EVs are also now hit with Expensive Car Supplement levied on all models costing £40,000 or more, which is exactly where we expect the Mazda 6e to be priced from. When cars cost more than that threshold owners willl need to cough up an extra £425 annually from years two to six. 

Offsetting that, the 6e has the potential to be a very cheap car to run, so long as you can charge at home as much as possible and get yourself onto a flexible electricity tariff and time your plug-in sessions accordingly. If you're on a standard tariff paying the national average, it will cost about £19 to fully charge the standard car from empty and just over £22 to fully replenish the Long Range version.

Insurance groups haven't yet been confirmed, but as a general rule electric cars cost more to cover than their petrol or diesel-powered counterparts. 

Exact UK specifications for the Mazda 6e have yet to be confrmed but we do know it will be launched with a two-tier trim structure consisting of Takumi and Takumi Plus. For guidance, the equipment listed below are for European market versions which we expect models sold here to be similar to. 

The Mazda 6e Takumi comes with the following equipment as standard:

• 19-inch alloy wheels 
• Electrically operated tailgate 
• Heated and electrically adjustable door mirrors 
• Faux leather trim
• Panoramic roof
• 360-degree camera system
• Keyless entry
• 64-colour interior ambient lighting system
• 10.2-inch digital instrument cluster 
• 14.6-inch touchscreen infotainment system
• Faux leather-wrapped steering wheel
• 14-speaker Sony audio system
• Wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto connectivity
• Adaptive cruise control

Upgrading to the Mazda 6e Takumi Plus builds on the above with:

• Tan Nappa leather and suede trim
• Electric sunshade