Mazda 6e Review 2025 | Traditional family car is now electric

What is the Mazda 6e?

In some areas, the new Mazda 6e - the new all-electric reimagining of the Mazda 6 family car - represents Mazda just being Mazda, which essentially means doing things that other car brands just wouldn’t. In other areas, however, it represents Mazda completely changing the way it does certain things, instead doing them in the same way as everybody else.

As an example of Mazda being Mazda, it has basically done what most other manufacturers have stopped doing, in that it’s trying to sell a large family car in Europe that’s not an SUV. Fairly unwise, many might say.

As another example, it has decided to offer two different powertrain configurations in the 6e, both of which are pretty darned similar on range and power, when most other manufacturers would’ve decided that it was probably more marketable to offer more diversity in their powertrain offerings. Rarely can you accuse Mazda of following the herd.

Until now, that is, because with the 6e it has made a significant change to its traditional ethos around touchscreen infotainment technology. And so whereas in the past Mazda has largely kept its systems fairly simple (and even been vocal in its criticisms of screens being too distracting as a way of controlling the car’s functions), with the new 6e it has done a complete about-turn by fitting a massive touchscreen and removing almost all physical buttons and controls from the cabin. More on the overall effect of all this later.

Now, we might be able to offer an explanation for all of the above weirdness, and that’s that the 6e is a car inherited from Mazda’s worldwide operation, rather than its more familiar European one. It’s actually a product of a joint venture with Chinese firm Changan Automobile, and it’s been on sale in China (where touchscreens are a must-have) since mid-2024 as the Mazda EZ-6.

Of course, none of that is of any consequence to British buyers. For us, the Mazda 6e is a large (nearly 5 metres long) all-electric family car that will go on sale halfway through 2026. Given its size and/or likely price, it’ll compete with diverse rivals such as the Volkswagen ID.7, Hyundai Ioniq 6, BYD Seal, Tesla Model 3, Tesla Model S, BMW i4, Volvo ES90, and more.

But does the Mazda 6e have what it takes to compete? To find out, we travelled to Leverkusen in Germany to drive an early pre-production prototype.

How practical is it?

We’ll begin this section by talking about the boot, simply because we’re a little bamboozled by it. Mazda quotes a luggage capacity of 336 litres when measured up to the parcel shelf, or 466 litres when measured up to the roof, including underfloor storage. Now, that first figure is frankly rubbish, but the thing is that when you look at the parcel-shelf-topped boot in real life, it looks much, much bigger. We’d believe the other figure more, but we’d say even that is underestimating things. The other strange thing is that there was precisely zero underfloor storage in the car we drove, and what’s more, it looks like there’s very little difference in volume when measuring to the roof because of the car’s steeply angled rear window. We’re not quite sure what’s going on there, then, but just take on board the message that despite what the figures say, the boot looks like a very decent size.

The hatchback tailgate gives good access, too, and there’s very little load lip to get in your way when you’re loading heavy items. The rear seats fold down in a 60/40 split to boost your luggage-carrying capacity to 1,074 litres (if indeed that figure is to be believed), and although the backrests don’t quite lay totally flat, they do get close.

Under the bonnet, you’ll find an impressively large 72-litre frunk, which is big enough to carry your charging cable plus a piece of carry-on luggage. A handy plastic basket that fits the space perfectly is also available as an accessory.

When the rear seats are needed for people, those people will enjoy very plentiful legroom, and fitting three across the rear bench is relatively comfy due to a wide cabin and a wide middle seat with a flat floor in front of it. However, headroom is a little on the tight side - anyone over six feet tall will be in danger of the headlining interfering with their hairdo - although that could be partly due to the panoramic roof fitted to our high-spec test car. Headroom is even tighter for whoever sits in the middle seat, because their seat is slightly raised.

Our high-spec test car also had electric seat adjustment up front (although there was no height adjustment for the front passenger, oddly), and with decent manual adjustment in the steering column, finding a comfortable driving position is a doddle. The front of the cabin is also teeming with useful storage spaces. However, rearward visibility is dreadful due to a small rear window that’s shallow, narrow, steeply angled, and flanked by thick pillars. For that reason, we hope the reversing camera fitted to our top-spec car ends up being fitted across the board.

What’s it like to drive?

There are two distinct versions of the 6e, a Standard Range and a Long Range. The numbers for each aren’t vastly different, to the point where, at first glance, you wonder why Mazda has bothered.

First is the Standard Range, which has a 68.8kWh battery giving a range of 298 miles according to WLTP figures. This feeds a 254bhp motor driving the rear wheels, and does 0-62mph in 7.6 seconds.

The Long Range, meanwhile, has a larger 80kWh battery for a range of 343 miles, but power is slightly reduced to 242bhp, meaning its 0-62mph is also slightly slower at 7.8 seconds (both versions have identical torque at 236lb ft). The bigger difference, though, is that the Standard Range has a maximum DC rapid charging capacity of 165kW, while in the Long Range, that’s reduced to just 90kW. That makes quite a difference when - and if - you can find an appropriately powerful public charger: a 10% to 80% top up will take 24 minutes in the Standard Range, while those who opt for the Long Range will be waiting around for 47 minutes.

So far, we’ve only had the chance to drive the Standard Range car. Performance is pretty brisk, and feels quicker than the 0-62mph time suggests. Most of that pace is in the initial response, though: press the pedal and the car scurries away briskly, but once you’re up and running, the rate of acceleration tails off.

Obviously, this acceleration is accompanied by virtually no soundtrack, making things very peaceful, but happily, refinement is excellent in other ways, too. Road noise (something that many Mazda models we’ve experienced have struggled with) is very well contained, while thick windows also isolate wind noise very well.

Elsewhere, the 6e doesn’t quite have the get-up-and-go of most Mazda models, but it does a very reasonable impression. The rear-wheel-drive layout, combined with the strong body control and fast, responsive steering, makes the car feel very eager to turn. It’s too big and heavy (almost two tonnes) to feel properly agile, but it does a good job of masking its mass.

In terms of ride comfort, the car we drove on the roads around Leverkusen in Germany had that typical Mazda trait of feeling firm but fair, but although it always stayed comfortable, we still detected an underlying brittleness, even though the roads we just mentioned were all immaculately surfaced. We wonder whether things will be quite so rosy when faced with the chewed-up surfaces you find in the UK, so we’ll have to reserve judgement on that for now.

One thing we think certainly could improve about the 6e’s driving experience is the regenerative braking. You can adjust it in four stages, but even the strongest of them isn’t very strong, and if you’re after a one-pedal sort of experience, the 6e gets nowhere near it. What’s more, there are no paddles behind the steering wheel for switching between the settings: you have to do it through the touchscreen.

Technology, equipment and infotainment

The 6e’s infotainment system brings together a head-up display that beams important driving information onto the windscreen in front of the driver, as well as a 10.2-inch digital screen behind the steering wheel that displays much of the same information, plus a bit more. Your main interface with the car comes in the form of a 14.6-inch central touchscreen with which you control pretty much all vehicle settings.

As already noted, in recent years Mazda has been clear about its view that touchscreen technology simply isn’t suitable for use in cars because it’s too distracting. And so while other carmakers have transitioned en masse to often-fiddly touchscreen controls in recent years, Mazda has held firm and stuck with the buttons, switches and rotary dials that it believes provide a safer and more accurate interface with the car.

With the 6e, however, Mazda has performed a complete about-turn on this position, removing almost all switchgear from the cabin, and replacing it with touchscreen functionality. You still have switches for the electric windows, and a button to open the glovebox, but that’s pretty much it. Almost everything else is operated by the touchscreen. That includes the electric door mirror adjustment (you select the corresponding screen on the system and then use arrow keys on the steering wheel to move your mirrors), and even the windscreen wipers. Yes, that’s right: rather than flicking a stalk to turn on your swishers and clear your screen, you have to dig out an on-screen menu from the gazillions on offer, and then select a speed.

Even disregarding those extreme examples, the complexity of the structure of menus, submenus, checkboxes and widgets makes it difficult to quickly and reliably find the function you need. Yes, there are shortcuts along the bottom of the screen, plus more that swipe out from the left hand side of the screen, to make things a little simpler, but it’s still very easy to get lost. Screen sensitivity is a bit hit-and-miss, too. Granted, there’s voice control and gesture control on hand to act as alternatives to the touchscreen, but as we often observe with such systems, that functionality is hit-and-miss at best, and at worst, it’s just plain miss.

If you’re hoping this approach might be limited to the 6e, we have bad news. At the same time as we drove the car, Mazda revealed the first details and images of the forthcoming CX-5, with an interior that features a big infotainment touchscreen, and very few buttons.

In terms of general equipment provision, the car isn’t due to go on sale until mid-2026, so kit levels are a long way off being announced. We’ll update this review once we find out more. We do know that nine airbags will be provided, though, and that Mazda is targeting a five-star Euro NCAP safety rating, so expect all the latest driver assistance systems.

Mazda 6e running costs

The Mazda 6e won’t be going on sale in the UK until halfway through 2026, so it’s way too early for pricing to have even been decided, let alone communicated. So, we’re still somewhat in the dark on that.

However, the car arrives much sooner in mainland Europe, in September of this year, and the configurators for those countries are already open. Look at what the car costs in Germany, and Mazda charges from 45,000 Euros for the Standard Range car, and 46,500 Euros for the Long Range. Adjusted to today’s exchange rate, that equates to around £39,000 and £40,000, respectively. Of course, there’s much more that goes into deciding a car’s pricing than just that (different taxes, on-the-road costs, etc), and we’d expect it to cost more than £40,000 over here. But, if Mazda can get somewhere close to that, it might look quite tempting given that the Volkswagen ID.7, arguably one of the 6e’s closest rivals, costs from around £51,000.

The Mazda 6e has a maximum AC charging speed of 11kW, so it quotes charging times based on that speed. They’re given at 7.3 hours for a full charge on the Standard Range car, and 8.4 hours for the Long Range. However, most owners will charge at home, and very few UK homes have the three-phase electrics needed for such a connection. Hook your car up to a more common 7.4kW home wallbox charger, and we reckon you’ll be looking at more like 11 hours on the Standard Range car and 12 hours on the Long Range.

If your domestic power is billed at the UK’s national average rate, that charge will cost you around £18 on the Standard Range car and around £21 on the Long Range. However, if you do the shrewd thing and get yourself on a domestic power tariff that allows you to charge your car overnight on heavily discounted electricity, and you’ll pay less than half that for a full charge.

Utilise that DC rapid-charging capability and you’ll pay a lot more. Prices vary between charging stations, but bank on paying 90p per kWh or more for such a hookup, in which case a 10%-80% will cost you £58 in the Standard Range and £67 in the Long Range. At that point, it becomes barely any cheaper to run than a regular petrol car, so we’d recommend only charging this way in emergencies.

VED incentives for electric cars have now been largely withdrawn by the UK Government, so annual road tax will cost you just as much as it will for an equivalently priced petrol or diesel car. However, Benefit-in-Kind tax incentives are still very compelling for EVs, so choosing the Mazda as your company car could save you a packet compared to a combustion-engined equivalent. It’s too early for insurance groupings to have been decided.

Mazda 6e reliability

The Mazda 6e is still several months away from going on sale in the UK, so it’s way too early to be trying to predict how reliable it’ll be.

The historical data would suggest that you might expect a very average level of reliability. Mazda placed 16th out of 33 carmakers in the manufacturer standings of the latest What Car? Reliability Survey, while the outgoing Mazda 6 placed 9th out of 20 models in the Executive Car category, although obviously, that car and the new car share nothing in common.

Mazda’s warranty package is fairly uninspiring, mind. You only get cover for three years or 60,000 miles, whichever comes first, which is the bare minimum you should expect from any new car these days.