Wanna ride shotgun with GRM?
Welcome to this week’s test vehicle, a 2024 Mazda CX-90 PHEV Premium Plus.
Yes, while a turbocharged inline-six is available, this CX-90 is–as the PHEV suggests–the plug-in hybrid model.
Instead of a six-cylinder engine, the PHEV model gets a four-cylinder engine that's combined with a 100kW motor for a total output of 323 horsepower and 369 lb.-ft. of torque …
I took the CX-90 out for lunch and first impressions are good. The interior is on par what you would expect to see in a modern Mazda. The seats are comfortable and the radio was easy to connect my phone to. One cool feature I noticed was a light above the rear view mirror to show how many passengers are buckled in and what seat they are in. 
The EV range was at zero miles when the car was dropped off so when I got home I plugged it in to charge on a standard 110V plug. The car said 9 hours and 40 minutes to charge to full. Once it is charged up I will report back on how the hybrid drive feels. 
After charging for 4 hours we have 9 miles of EV range. That should be enough to run to the grocery store and back fully in EV mode. I'll leave it plugged in overnight tonight to get it up to a full charge.
So that's maybe a 10kwh pack? So cute!
With all the seats up there isn't a ton of trunk space but there is enough for a small trip to the store. 
Tom Suddard said:So that's maybe a 10kwh pack? So cute!
Specs say 17.9, so about the same as a Volt. Good size for a plug-in. Enough to cover most daily needs without the overhead of a big expensive pack.
On a 24 mile round trip drive of mixed highway and surface roads we were able to get 2.4 miles/kWh. We started with 23 miles of claimed range on the dash when we started the car this morning and about a mile and a half from my house on the way back the ICE engine took over. For around town use this seems to be a good option for a big plug in hybrid so far.
Keith Tanner said:Tom Suddard said:So that's maybe a 10kwh pack? So cute!
Specs say 17.9, so about the same as a Volt. Good size for a plug-in. Enough to cover most daily needs without the overhead of a big expensive pack.
Is that total or usable? I found the same spec you did, but Chris says range in electric mode is 24 miles at 2.4 miles per kWh, which makes me think only 10 kWh is available before the transition to hybrid mode. But that seems to leave a lot of battery on the table. Mazda's quoted range is 26 miles, and they quote 11 hours to charge on a level 1 charger.
I'll bet it transitions to mild hybrid mode once the battery is below a certain point to maintain full performance. That makes more sense than fully depleting the battery and going ICE-only. The smaller non-PHEV Prius uses a 4 kWh pack and it's packing a much smaller electric motor.
Keith Tanner said:I'll bet it transitions to mild hybrid mode once the battery is below a certain point to maintain full performance. That makes more sense than fully depleting the battery and going ICE-only. The smaller non-PHEV Prius uses a 4 kWh pack and it's packing a much smaller electric motor.
If it helps, Mazda offers this snippet:
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Yeah, that makes sense--I thought 7.9kwh for a hybrid battery seemed huge (a Maverick's is about 1 kwh), but the big motor explains it.
Another neat thing about the CX-90 is the amount of outlets in the back seats and trunk. There are AC plugs on both sides in the trunk and USB C ports on both sides in the third row and two on the center console for the middle row. 
I see they start around $50k. What's the sticker on this demo unit?
STM317 said:I see they start around $50k. What's the sticker on this demo unit?
Clicking “View original news post” will usually reveal the window sticker (assuming we got one), but total on this one as delivered is $58,920.
So I drive the CX-90 up to Jacksonville and back last night and then over to Orlando this morning. Over all it's a nice SUV but it has some downsides. Lots of wind and tire noise on the highway and the seats are not super comfortable for longer trips. On the positive though it averages 29mpg on the highway.
I drove the CX-90 around town for about half an hour yesterday. Mostly in "EV mode," before depleting the battery just before I arrived at home.
And, uh, wow. If this was marketed as a standard hybrid, then it would just be another boring three-row SUV. But marketed as a plug-in? Just... wow. What a swing and a miss. This feels far less electric than a non-plug-in Prius. And its gasoline drivetrain is pretty harsh (but is decently quick).
Even when the HV battery is charged, more than about half throttle means no electric motor for you; it fires up the gas engine. You can force it into EV mode, but then it's really, really slow. Like, "floor it to keep up with traffic around town" slow.
When you start the car with a depleted HV battery, it immediately starts the gas engine.
In electric mode, you can feel every shift from a transmission that's somehow present. I'm almost certain the electric motor is just stuck in front of a normal automatic transmission. This is generally a poor choice for efficiency and for driving manners.
Again, as a normal hybrid this thing is fine, but as an EV it's terrible. It feels like the marketing department, not engineering, bolted that charging socket on.
The interior looks beautiful, but the driver's seat is hard as a rock.
There's a bad rattle from the dash and/or mirror electronics box. Haven't quite narrowed that down yet.
There's a ton of noise from the left front over bumps. Spring bind or something.
For $58,000 and dubious benefits from the J1772 port on the side, I'd walk across the street to the Toyota dealership, buy a loaded Highlander hybrid for $5-$10,000 less, and never look back.
I'm planning to drive it for a few hours on the highway later this week, so I'll post an update if I find some redeeming qualities there.
In reply to Tom Suddard :
I hope the non-plug-in CX-90 is a bit better. I wasn't expecting perfection, but it sounds like Mazda really dropped the ball.
Here's the summary of a full charge at home.
In reply to Tom Suddard :
In pure electric mode, it's got 100 kW of power - that's about 136 hp. It's not surprising it feels slower if it's lost nearly 200 hp. That's probably also why the electric motor drives through a transmission - it looks like it's basically installed where the torque converter goes (picture from Mazda's press site).
It's a hybrid that has the ability to run as a pure EV for short distances and at lower speeds, but it's not a BEV with a range extender motor installed. Hybrids and PHEVs are not a black and white thing, they're a sliding scale where battery size and motor power and ICE power are all juggled. What's the ideal mix? I doubt there is one. Hybrids are always compromises by their very nature, and we seem more willing to accept the compromise if it's basically an ICE with a little more instead of a chimera of both like this appears to be.
When you start the car with a depleted HV battery, it immediately starts the gas engine
The alternative would be a vehicle that doesn't move until you charge it. This seems reasonable :)
Well, to be fair, a standard Prius doesn't instantly fire up the gas motor when it's parked in the driveway.
For context, a Nissan Leaf (even the slowest version) has more EV power.
The point I'm getting at is that I just don't see a compelling reason for this to exist. It's all the additional expense and complication of a PHEV, with none of the lovely day-to-day EV driving manners the combination could provide in theory. This segment doesn't have to be like this--see the Outlander PHEV or Toyota's plug-ins as benchmarks--but Mazda seems to have just misunderstood the assignment.
Tape the charge port closed and lower the price to match the normal hybrids in the class and then you've got a perfectly serviceable mid-size hybrid SUV.
So it's a mild hybrid that can have the battery charged if you want, and can run under pure electric power if you want. Basically, it's a Ferrari SF90 :)
Mazda's chosen different compromises than you'd prefer. I suspect you'd like more battery and more motor, possibly with a tradeoff of less ICE. Between this and the MX-30, I think they're having a little trouble nailing what the market wants.
Food for thought...
For 2024 YTD, the CX-90 is Mazda's fourth best-selling vehicle.
1. CX-5: 58,094
2. CX-30: 44,450
3. CX-50: 27,399
4. CX-90: 18,277
5. Mazda3: 15,157
In reply to J.A. Ackley :
Do you have those CX-90 numbers split out between PHEV and ICE? The Mazda press releases don't distinguish, at least the April one doesn't. I did find one reference from September to 5.9% of total volume although it's unclear if that is total Mazda or total CX-90.
Keith, you nailed it, and I know it seems like I'm being picky about the plug-in part not living up to my expectations, but I need to keep repeating that this thing is $58,000!!!
The PHEV starts at a $12,000 price premium vs. a gas-only CX-90, so I think it should drive way better than the standard SUV.
And, again, it's somewhere between $5000 and $10,000 more than an equally specced Highlander hybrid.
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