Amongst mainstream, gasoline-fueled autos, with only some exceptions, our recommendation to most buyers has turn into easy: If there’s a hybrid, get the hybrid.
There’s now a hybrid within the Alabama-built Mazda CX-50 lineup. And after spending a few days with it, sure, that recommendation holds—with a number of caveats.
A very powerful piece of context wanted right here up entrance could also be that Mazda doesn’t, like rival automakers within the Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4, Ford Escape or, quickly, Subaru Forester, see the hybrid system as creating the flagship of the lineup. As a substitute it matches the CX-50 Hybrid between its 2.5 S and Turbo fashions.
Hybrid transplant for Mazda’s mainstream center
First issues first, the CX-50 Hybrid carries ahead with the benefit already held by non-hybrid CX-50 variations: It seems to be nice. The CX-50 has a profile, stance, and styling particulars that every one match collectively cohesively. It neither seems to be like a plus-size compact SUV nor a nipped-and-tucked tackle a much bigger SUV, the edges are sculpted good, the cladding is quaffed and minimal, and it doesn’t have awkward angles.
You’re unlikely to pick the Hybrid from the non-hybrid from a distance, apart from distinctive alloy wheels. The CX-50 Hybrid’s exterior is discreetly raised 1.4 inches (35 mm) whereas offering the identical floor clearance, and it will get commensurate “higher-profile physique cladding” (actually a refined change) to sign that and maybe assist it match extra simply alongside non-hybrids.
The CX-50 Hybrid additionally carries over practically the identical total dimensions and packaging. It has 7.8 to eight.1 inches of floor clearance, and it’s the 19-inch wheels featured in my check Premium Plus that present that further bump.
After the admiration for this good-looking exterior fades a bit, it begins to turn into clear that this isn’t fairly as roomy of an inside because the CX-50 suggests on the skin. Versus any of these rivals, the CX-50’s EPA passenger quantity of 97.0 cubic toes is markedly much less; and it doesn’t make up for it with its cargo quantity of 29.2 cubic toes, or 56.3 cubic toes with the rear seats folded.
2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid
Trades off area vs. rivals for a fairly profile
Contemplating the CX-50 longer bod, it took a number of walkarounds to grasp that there’s a easy reply to the place the area goes. The CX-50 seems to be nice as a result of extra of its profile is devoted to the hoodline and fewer to the cabin.
At 185.6 inches lengthy and using on a noteworthy 110.8-inch wheelbase, the CX-50 is a number of inches longer than rivals like Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4, or Subaru Forester, and inside an inch or so in most different key dimensions.
That mentioned, it’s nonetheless a lot roomy for 4. Get adults into the entrance and rear seats and that is an inside that may do six-footers within the entrance and rear seats. Though the seats don’t really feel fairly as back-supportive as these used within the Mazda 3 or CX-5, they’re fairly good versus what you’ll discover in different reasonably priced autos.
The hybrid’s 1.59-kwh nickel-metal-hydride battery pack has minor affect on area. It’s positioned underneath the rear seat. Thus, rear passengers sit nearer to the ground however greater from the bottom. It ends in barely much less legroom, nevertheless it’s such a small distinction that cross-shoppers won’t even decide it out. A lot of the Hybrid’s ground construction is exclusive to it, and the entrance body rails are set extra extensively aside—so don’t anticipate it to hold over the usual CX-50’s federal five-star and IIHS Prime Security Decide+ standing fairly but.
2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid
39-mpg AWD hybrid system, acquainted numbers—from Toyota
What’s underneath the hood is a totally completely different engine than the Mazda one powering non-hybrid variations of the CX-50. Mazda calls this an “eCVT,” nevertheless it’s a planetary torque-split machine permitting a number of bands of efficient ratio spans to allow completely different electrified torque and effectivity calls for.
Right here, the two.5-liter Toyota inline-4 makes 176 hp and 163 lb-ft of torque, with all-wheel-drive offered solely by way of a rear electrical motor, making 54 hp and 89 lb-ft of torque. Altogether, the Toyota hybrid system makes the identical mixed 219 hp and 163 lb-ft of torque—the identical output numbers as within the RAV4 Hybrid.
2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid
2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid
2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid
It earns EPA rankings of 39 mpg metropolis, 37 freeway, and 38 mixed. Though this primary pattern of the CX-50 Hybrid instructed that these numbers is likely to be just a little optimistic, consumers can sit up for spectacular effectivity in on a regular basis driving with this sensible crossover.
Curb weight of the CX-50 provides as much as 4,008 kilos, in accordance with Mazda. That’s 267 kilos greater than a non-hybrid CX-50, or a couple of hundred kilos greater than a Turbo. The CX-50 Hybrid is rated to tow 1,500 kilos—lower than different CX-50 fashions, however sufficient to keep away from a pickup for crosstown weekend-project hauls and the like.
CX-50 Hybrid real-world mpg proves diesel fallacious
Mazda spent years making an attempt to deliver a turbo-diesel engine to the U.S. market, after which when it arrived within the 2019 Mazda CX-5 SkyActive-D, it offered slower acceleration and solely marginally higher mpg. Now the CX-50 lays out the inspiration of an argument that Mazda ought to have been trying to hybrids all alongside. It positively accelerates to 60 mph faster than the 8+ seconds of the bottom CX-50, whereas topping that mannequin’s 28-mpg mixed EPA rankings—at a worth premium that’s going to repay on the gasoline pump inside a number of years.
2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid
So to get a really feel for why Mazda bailed by itself diesel and turned to Toyota, I took the CX-50 Hybrid on the very same loop I took the considerably smaller, underwhelming CX-5 diesel on a number of years earlier: a virtually 175-mile loop that features fast-moving, dynamic-driving backroads and steep highways skirting Oregon’s Mt. Hood, with the final 60 miles close to the 70-mph move of site visitors. In all, I averaged 35 mpg—considerably higher than the 31 mpg the diesel mannequin had managed in the identical type of driving.
I then additionally took the CX-50 out on a 53-mile loop that I’ve run plenty of completely different hybrid on, with 700 toes of elevation achieve and loss plus a mixture of light under-65-mph freeway driving, suburban stop-and-go, and rolling-hill backroads. On this, I averaged 39 mpg, which is a number of mpg lower than I’d seen within the CR-V Hybrid and RAV4 Hybrid on this similar loop underneath comparable situations.
Like many hybrids, the CX-50 Hybrid is a really environment friendly cruiser offered you retain inside a sure candy spot. At a gentle 70 mph, my check automobile settled into a median proper round 35 mpg. However mountain climbing the pace as much as 75 mph appeared to drop mileage to 32 mpg.
2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid
2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid
2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid
“Signature driving dynamics” of a special type
Mazda has a status for offering sportier, better-driving autos, and the CX-50 has Mazda’s “signature driving dynamics,” in accordance with the model. As somebody who loves the Miata, recommends the CX-30, and appreciates the brand new CX-70 and CX-90—and the frugal worth of Toyota’s hybrids—I’m not bought on the hybrid CX-50.
What I discovered disappointing proper from the beginning was that the hybrid system feels very conservatively tuned—in a approach that doesn’t at all times go together with makes an attempt at a full of life character within the look, really feel, and packaging of the automobile.
Dynamically, if Mazda is making an attempt to promote extra hybrids or extra EVs within the close to future, this doesn’t transfer the driving force in any enthusiastic approach.
2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid
When you can take a typical CX-30 or a CX-90 plug-in hybrid off on a backroad and discover an unexpectedly vivid, spirited driving expertise, that is merely not what you get within the CX-50 Hybrid. Versus direct rivals, the CX-50 doesn’t drive with the swish dynamics and above-and-beyond steering and suspension response of the remainder of the Mazda lineup, though trip high quality is first rate on its comparatively softly tuned suspension, with struts in entrance and a torsion-beam format in again.
There’s no Sport mode (that’s left for the Turbo); you may select from Regular, Energy, and Path, and the Energy mode. Energy mode saved the engine on practically on a regular basis and eradicated the slight lag whereas ready for it to fireside up for full energy, nevertheless it didn’t make the CX-50 really feel any perkier finally. You’ll be able to order up decrease “gears” simulated with the hybrid system, however they don’t present all that rather more engine braking or regenerative braking for hills or curves.
2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid
The hybrid transplant improved the burden distribution of the CX-50 to 55/45 entrance/rear. However don’t consider that or the CX-50 Hybrid all-wheel-drive system as including something to driving dynamics in most conditions. Its tuning feels extra benign even than that of the RAV4, or different Mazda hybrids. and I felt no torque supply to the rear wheels in tight corners on a rain-slicked highway—to the diploma that, the place the rain switched to snow up on Mt. Hood, I pulled off on a snow-covered gravel turnout to confirm that sure, certainly, this was all-wheel drive. There, at low speeds and mild throttle, it provided up exact traction to the rear wheels as wanted. Path mode optimizes grip in low-traction conditions reminiscent of that, nevertheless it wasn’t even wanted there.
Simply as my fellow editors identified concerning the non-hybrid CX-50, it is a loud inside, and there doesn’t appear to be markedly extra padding for the hybrid. It booms at freeway speeds on something however good surfaces, with highway noise, not engine noise, arising via the again of the automobile into the cabin—making me suppose that backseat passengers might need a somewhat fatiguing expertise on lengthy journeys.
2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid
2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid
2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid
Mazda CX-50 Hybrid goes for worth
For 2025, the entire CX-50 lineup will get extra options with out growing MSRP. The CX-50 Hybrid is obtainable in Most well-liked, Premium, and Premium Plus trims. The $35,390 Most well-liked will get heated vinyl seats, an influence driver’s seat, rain-sensing wipers, a wi-fi telephone charger, and an influence liftgate. The $38,820 Premium will get a panoramic sunroof, an influence passenger seat with reminiscence settings, black roof rails and exhaust ideas, 12-speaker Bose audio, extra driver-assistance tech together with adaptive cruise management, and elective purple leather-based seating. The $42,065 Premium Plus—the one I examined—will get 19-inch alloy wheels, cooled entrance seats, a heated steering wheel, and energy folding aspect mirrors.
With some extra tools versus non-hybrid fashions, the CX-50 Hybrid Most well-liked prices $2,320 greater than an equal non-hybrid CX-50 Most well-liked—or $3,670 greater than the bottom non-hybrid CX-50 Choose. Hybrid variations of Premium and Premium Plus CX-50 trims price $3,400 and $2,550 extra, respectively, than non-hybrid variations.
For probably the most half it is a fairly well-designed inside, with a easy reconfigurable gauge cluster, good strains of sight, and cupholders and bins in wise locations—though the CX-50’s wi-fi telephone charger blipped forwards and backwards between charging and never charging not simply with my iPhone however two different check gadgets.
2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid
The CX-50’s infotainment system features a 10.3-inch touchscreen, nevertheless it revolves round a hierarchical menu system which will proceed to go away you flabbergasted even after you get to understand it. How do you channel-surf and easily go up and down channels on SXM, for example, or return again to the channel you had been on for those who swap unintentionally? There’s a complete lot of clumsily backing out a number of menu steps for contextual “subsequent steps” that must be a click on away. The system does have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration. That labored nice and it’s possible you’ll end up counting on it, as Mazda’s system appears to have misplaced some performance lately.
Mazda features a full suite of active-safety options right here, together with computerized emergency braking, blind-spot displays, and remarkably non-invasive energetic lane management. However on a easy lead-and-follow adaptive cruise, that system didn’t move the check when site visitors slowed barely, the automobile I used to be following modified lanes, and one other automobile was instantly forward.
2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid
CX-50 Hybrid: Not a distinct segment this time, however not Mazda’s future
Mazda has lately appeared just a little misplaced with inexperienced autos, like with its Mazda MX-30 EV that did not ship its potential, and with a complete suite of applied sciences, like SkyActiv-X and SkyActiv-D engine tech, and a rotary vary extender, that did not even arrive within the U.S.
The CX-50 looks like a straightforward alternative for Mazda to counter the extra thrilling aspect it’s proven with its perky, properly tuned CX-90 plug-in hybrid, however the CX-50 Hybrid simply doesn’t have the character we anticipated.
After spending a pair days with it, on one hand it feels just like the mass-market, efficiency-oriented mannequin that Mazda ought to have had within the lineup earlier than both of these high-effort tech oddities. However then again it doesn’t have the character we anticipated, even given the constraints of the hybrid system going into it.
2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid
The CX-50 merely doesn’t have the built-in refinement of the Honda CR-V Hybrid, and it doesn’t really feel prefer it even has the perkiness of a Toyota RAV4 Hybrid.
Past first impressions and the curb attraction, I’d a lot somewhat be in a Honda CR-V Hybrid. The Honda has a torquier, quicker-reacting powertrain; it handles higher; its cabin feels extra upscale; and it makes higher use of its area.
The automaker is nonetheless on-path to a gross sales report, and it boasts that 2024 is shaping as much as be its first yr promoting greater than 400,000 autos yearly. It has a report proprietor loyalty of over 50%, and it expects to promote 100,000 CX-50s in 2025, with Hybrid fashions making up 40% of that.
May that path be just a little extra shifting? We’ll depart that query to Mazda—and the journey to you.
