Beloved car brand discontinues EV after motor was blasted by drivers as ‘weird & confusing’ with poor range
A WORLD-famous car brand has discontinued its top of the range electric vehicle as it was slated by drivers and critics.
Mazda has pulled the plug on its MX-30 model in the US just two years after its fully electric vehicle went into production.
Critics at Top Gear blasted the SUV as being a “weird little crossover” and an “underperformer”.
While Auto Express was not quite so harsh, describing it as a “stylish and unorthodox choice”.
It said: “Sharp, stylish design, unusual rear-hinged doors, an engaging driving experience and a top class safety score are the big selling points, but the limited range and poor rear passenger accommodation will deter many.”
The experts at What Car? Gave it just two out of five stars.
While it praised its smart interior and good handling, it slammed its “pathetic range,” and “stupid rear doors and poor rear seat space”.
An owner of the vehicle took to his TikTok page to list all the things he didn’t like about it.
The social media user known as “@runwayvisuals” took to the social media site to savage the vehicle.
He starts off by saying the car’s range on a full charge is just 124 miles, which he claims is “really bad” compared to it competitors like the Kia Niro which is nearly double that.
The Mazda’s range, the man says, will decrease on a cold wintry day to around 90 miles.
He also blasted the rear-hinged back doors or as he called them the “suicide doors” which were very hard to get into and there was little leg room, even for him as he was 5’7”.
The man did say the car was very comfortable but overall he recommended people buy a Kia Niro instead.
Mazda said in a statement it would be focusing its US electrification efforts on “large platform PHEVs”, such as the new CX-90 plug-in hybrid and upcoming CX-70 plug-in hybrid.
It also said a non-plug-in CX-50 will also be arriving shortly.
The MX-30 came with a tiny 35.5kWh battery and took nearly 9.5 seconds for it to reach 60 mph.
The car’s poor performance and poor range, combined with limited space inside meant it sold poorly.
Although US sales were also hampered as Mazda limited sales of the vehicle to California, according to Top Gear.
As of June 2023, only 571 models had been sold.
However, despite Mazda stopping sales in the US, it will still be sold in other countries where it is available as either an EV or a plug-in hybrid.
The plug-in model, called the R-EV, comes with a rotary engine as a range extender, making it the first rotary powered Mazda since the RX-8.