Opinions, first contact and photos

Playing funambulism has never been easy. Keeping balance in a rope to, step by step, touring a path in which any small unexpected obstacle can make you fall. Managing air currents to stay firm, in your site, because you know that giving in to one of them can be fatal.

That is the game that Mazda has been practicing. Of which has always made a flag to stay as an alternative, a company that presumes different things to conquer an audience that wants different things. Of course, with a good product that supports your decisions.

Now, with the electric car, those currents are stronger than ever.

Mazda 6e Technical Card

Winds of change

Everything in Mazda breathes Japanese air. The company boasts of Japanese philosophy and design, of paying attention to detail as Only Japanese obsession allows. That is why they have remained firm before the currents that They took us to eliminate physical buttons either They have been so hard with the electric carespecially those that are huge and heavy.

In those Mazda has remained So far with the electric car. His MX-30 boast of rational. They are aware that an electric car, where more advantage has to get combustion is in the urban environment. Because their virtues of rolling silently, without vibrations and without transmission are more evident.

They put on the market a car that fulfilled all this and that aspired to combine Its electric mechanics with lightness. A challenge that has not come to the company. Its 200 km of autonomy have been very concise for the client. The solution they have thought is as crazy as a rational: stuffing a rotating engine and offering an extended range electric. A light plug -in hybrid, perfect in electric mode for day to day and useful if we leave the city.

But rationality is a value that works rarely in the car market. And in that irrationality, Mazda has found an unexpected success. In China, Where is it associated with Changan Since they entered to manufacture in the country when they were still part of Ford, they got good sales with an enormous electric Berlina, with the external identity signs of Mazda but giving ground to the demands of the Chinese client inside, such as its huge screen.

Good results encouraged the company to bring the car to Europe. To try their luck with an electric Berlina 4.92 meters long, with sufficient autonomy to travel and, above all, a much more tight price than that of its rivals. If electric cars have reduced quality in the interiors to file the price to the maximum and, many, have not yet managed to enter the budget of potential customers, this Mazda 6e appeals directly to them.

Assignments that hurt (but understand)

We said with the new Mazda CX-5 that the company based much of its attractiveness in atmospheric engines, on having a six cylinders in diesel line with the CX-60 or not bend to the whole screen even in its most expensive cars, such as Mazda CX-80.

For a Mazda enthusiast, the latter is, without a doubt, what will hit him most in this Mazda 6e. The company has brought its electric Berlina directly and has put it on the market with minimal changes. These changes have focused, directly, on the tuning of the vehicle to feel that we are facing a firm suspension vehicle, which keeps the body in place and flees from the classic flaneos of Chinese vehicles, whose customers prefer a softer touch.

That rolling quality is, without a doubt, one of the best attributes of the car. Its poise and its silence collide with a firm acceleration but without stridency, that does not hit you to the seat as in the electric cars that need to demonstrate that they are fast to conquer an audience that they question their soul. But its 245 or 258 hp, depending on the chosen battery, offer a linear thrust and great security against any hurry that may arise on the road.

In Sport mode I have the feeling that he wanted to spin too fine and have gone from thread. First because the exquisite touch of the direction, one of the identity of the brand in all its cars, is lost with it active, appreciating artificial. But, above all, being so direct that on the highway it can be slightly uncomfortable because to each small rectification the car feels sway to start a turn that never arrives.

The concessions continue inside where what is most attracted is their flattened steering wheel and their Huge 14.6 inches screen. And its absence of tactile controls. The extremely fine and well thought out ergonomics that has defined its models so far is lost here because recreating a whole new puffer cabinet and building from scratch a software that adapts to the rest of the brand models would take, without any doubt, the final costs of the product.

And, above all, it is very likely that it compromised functions that in an electric car are essential, such as the route calculator, since the model software was born with the vehicle itself, since the beginning of its development.

In our test we have not had time to deepen the options of the infotainment system everything we would like. I remain with the feeling that there are functions that should have been maintained, yes or yes, within the physical controls such as the control of the windshield wiper that forces to pass the screen. It also seemed to me, in this first contact, that the system is deep and requires some learning.

However, there are solutions that encourage to think that the client does have an interesting and well -thought infotainment system. It is something that we have left to check in a longer test. In the steering wheel there are two configurable buttons such as shortcuts. The same happens with up to six lower buttons that are always visible on the central screen. Dragging elements allows substitution to incorporate the most used functions.

Of course, if we said that one of the best attributes of Mazda 6E was its rolling quality, so is the quality of the interiors. The chosen materials are very pleasant of great quality and are very well tight. But, above all, I was surprised that with the top range finish, which adds only 1,650 euros to the final price but has no hidden equipment (only the upholstery is improved and a more comfortable opening of the sunroof), it provides enormous warmth to the interior, as if we were in the living room of our house.

The perception is repeated in the rear seats, wide and equally careful. With specific air conditioning that is handled with a new touch screen. The open sunroof helps to generate that warm and pleasant atmosphere because it is of great size.

Some very high quality materials that add up to endless equipment. For reference only some of the elements that the car brings as standard: customization with up to 64 colors of the inner environment, six By voice, or multitude of ADAS systems, including a warning so as not to forget children in the rear seats.

All those assignments that we have been talking about are easier to forgive when Mazda tells us that he offers two options in this Berlina.

The first one has a 68.8 kWh LFP battery, which is combined with a 190 kW (258 hp) electric motor and homologating 479 kilometers. On the road, the car is likely to move between 350 and 400 real kilometers. Its maximum load is 135 kW, offering a 10 to 80% recharge in 24 minutes. Its price starts from 43,725 euros but there is a discount campaign that places it at 38,3815 euros.

At that price we must add 1,600 euros if we want the upholstery that you see in the photos and/or another 1,600 euros who opt for the battery of 80 kWh. This is combined with a 180 kW engine (245 hp) and increases autonomy at 552 kilometers. In practice, we can expect autonomy on highway to reach 450 kilometers or perhaps something else and approach 500 kilometers. It is NCM chemistry but, incomprehensibly, it only loads 90 kW of power, so waiting for it from 10 to 80% of the capacity extends to 47 minutes.

This questionable decision makes me bow, without any doubt, for the first option. The 50-70 kilometers of difference between one and another option do not think that making the leap to the largest version if we take into account that the waiting times be folded.

All this, of course, taking into account that at these prices the MOVES III PLANwhich can expand discounts at up to 7,000 euros in the purchase of the car and in others 3,000 euros maximum money to deduct In the income statement.

If around 40,000 euros, the car is already very competitive in a price taking into account its equipment and the very high level of its cabin in terms of materials, putting below 35,000 euros make it the most desirable option for those who seek the best combination of size and quality perceived inside in an electric car.

Photos | Xataka

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