Cheap and spacious, but …
The Mazda CX-6e offers ample rear space, a low price, and many features. But the Mazda feel is harder to find.
11/05/2026 07:02 | Updated 09:43
About ten years ago, Mazda was among the most popular car brands in Norway, but the transition to electric vehicles has been difficult.
The MX-30 was the market’s only all-electric option for a long time, until Mazda got Chinese support and launched the 6e.
We take a closer look at:
What kind of car is this?
Mazda CX-6e – Summary
Seating – comfortable
Interior – lots of screens
Rear seat space – vast
Trunk space – surprisingly small
Driving experience – lacks Mazda flair
Cruise control – somewhat basic
Range – a positive surprise
Charging – faster than many
Price and competitors
Conclusion
Now they’re trying again. The Mazda CX-6e is a large and relatively affordable SUV, but once again, the car was developed with Chinese assistance.
Under the Mazda banner lies much from the Chinese car brand Changan, and the question is whether Mazda has managed to make the car truly its own.
What kind of car is this?
The Mazda CX-6e is a large electric SUV for those who want plenty of space and are willing to spend a bit, but don’t absolutely need all-wheel drive. And precisely the lack of it could be the car’s biggest challenge in Norway.
Mazda CX-6e – Summary
Plus
Appearance
Price
Good rear seating space
Minus
Only rear-wheel drive
Small trunk with low payload capacity
Too noisy with alerts that are difficult to turn off
The CX-6e is only available with rear-wheel drive. Since four-wheel drive is a top priority for many Norwegian SUV buyers, this naturally limits the customer base.
On the other hand, the starting price is a very attractive 428,000 kroner. As a result, many people can consider getting a substantial SUV at a relatively low cost.
Design-wise, Mazda has made efforts to create a family-friendly appearance. The front end features a sound signature where we would have expected chrome in the past. Otherwise, the car has a very smooth design.
The CX-6e is 4.85 meters long with a 16-centimeter ground clearance. It is about 1.62 meters tall, resulting in a relatively long and low SUV.
Seating – comfortable to sit in
The CX-6e is available in two versions, Takumi and Takumi Plus. Both are quite similarly equipped, including leather seats with 8-way power adjustment for the driver’s seat and 4-way adjustment for the passenger’s seat, with both seats offering heating and cooling.
The Takumi Plus is best shown with a two-tone interior in white and purple. All models have speakers in the headliner, totaling 23 speakers. Mazda has retained manual steering adjustment.
The adjustment options are good, and I found a comfortable seating position.
Interior – lots of screens
The interior looks good in the pictures, but I think the solutions are a bit odd. What on earth is the point of a 26-inch screen showing just a basic map?
There aren’t many menus to choose from that take up more space than usual, leaving the passenger even fewer options. Here, it seems to follow the rule that “bigger is better,” even though there’s not necessarily much to show there.
The buttons on the dashboard are physical, though most are located behind a single continuous panel. They provide a decent feel, but the buttons for increasing and decreasing speed require long presses before anything happens, and the button for the 360-degree camera has taken a very dominant position among the cruise control buttons.
The center console has a wireless charging pad, but the phone rests on rubber with no significant side support, which causes it to slide onto the floor if the bumps get too steep. The space for a second phone is just a smooth flat surface. Bizarre.
You get two passengers’ seats, a deep storage area, and a bit of extra space. Further down, there are USB-C and 12-volt outlets, but the surface here is also hard and smooth.
A head-up display is standard even on the most affordable model, offering you three display options.
Rear Seat – A World of Space
I’m 1.89 meters tall, and the rear seat space is enormous. I have more than a foot of headroom in front of my knees and up to the ceiling, which consists of a very large panoramic glass panel with an electric sunroof.
This is standard and can be controlled from the center console at the back, along with adjustments to the passenger seat and heating and cooling for the rear seats. Rear cooling is only available on the Takumi Plus version.
The floor is completely flat, so the center area also appears usable. Additionally, the center console doesn’t extend too far back, allowing plenty of space for the feet.
The armrests with two headrests and three handholds on the ceiling are in place, and the windows slide all the way down to the door, for those interested in that feature. The space for rear-facing child seats is very good.
We measured 28 centimeters between the child seats, so it’s also usable with room for a small passenger between them. There’s Isofix at the back, plus Isofix on the front passenger seat.
Trunk space – surprisingly small
Here’s the surprise. The trunk capacity is only 363 liters with the seats up, dropping to 1,434 liters with them folded down. It’s hard to believe when you see the cargo area, but there’s no space under the floor, and the trunk lid isn’t mounted too high.
In our luggage test, we only had room for the largest and second-largest suitcases under the hood cover. The rear seatback is 40/60 split, with no divider.
The towing capacity is also disappointing at just 385 kilograms. The tow package costs 20,000 and adds 1,500 kilograms of pulling capacity.
Fortunately, there’s a roughly 80-liter trunk space in front, essentially a glove box. This is useful in a car with otherwise limited trunk space.
Driving Impressions – A Bit of Mazda
The car is ready to drive as soon as you get in. The screens come online, you select Drive, and you’re off. That’s when the noise starts immediately.
The first time I picked up the car from the importer and drove straight onto the highway, I actually found that all the warnings made me nervous and annoyed. It was like having a know-it-all in the passenger seat who kept annoying you endlessly.
You’re forced to turn it off for 30 seconds or more before each drive to avoid getting sweaty during the trip.
It’s clear that Mazda hasn’t done enough to “Mazda-ify” the car properly. For Mazda, there has traditionally been a focus on the relationship between the driver and the car, or as they put it themselves: “Jinba Ittai,” which means horse and rider as one.
I doubt the goal of that relationship was to make the driver irritable and sweaty.
Mazda has work to do here in calibrating the sensitivity and level of warnings, as well as providing an easier way to turn them off for those who wish. After all, the general goal is for the systems to remain enabled and function as a helpful aid in the background.
The engine delivers 258 horsepower and 290 Nm of torque, driving the rear wheels. The 0 to 100 km/h time is listed at 7.9 seconds, with a top speed of 185 km/h.
The acceleration feels quite sluggish, even in Sport mode, and we had to try several times to achieve the stated acceleration time.
Comfort – quiet, but simple
Under normal driving conditions, the CX-6e is comfortable, and several people who have ridden in it with me noted that it appears quiet. Our informal noise measurements confirm this: 62.4 dB at 80 km/h and 66.2 dB at 100 km/h.
The handling and suspension are less impressive. Once you start pushing the car, it loses control quite quickly, and the ride quality is barely passable even with a slightly more spirited drive on soft winter tires. It might be amusing, but it doesn’t feel particularly sophisticated.
At moderate driving speeds, the car performs quite well. But it’s clear that this is primarily a relatively simple and affordable vehicle.
Cruise Control – Slightly Underdeveloped
The adaptive cruise control maintains the same quality as the rest of the features. With the driver assistance system active, I find the car interfering in ways I don’t want, while also failing to keep the vehicle in its lane as effectively as it should.
The system has four distance settings and can adjust the speed to match recorded speed limits if desired, but it doesn’t account for intersections, curves, etc. There’s also no lane-keeping assist feature.
Range – A Positive Surprise
The Takumi is rated at 484 kilometers of WLTP range. Our test vehicle is the Takumi Plus with larger 21-inch wheels, and in this case, the range drops to 468 kilometers. The reported fuel consumption is around 1.94 kWt/mile.
On our fixed test route, however, we experienced around 1.49 kWt/mile. This is very positive compared to the reported consumption.
On our fixed highway test, we ended up with around 1.78 kWt/mile under steady driving conditions.
Thus, fuel consumption is one of the positive surprises with the CX-6e, and since the vehicle is equipped with a heat pump, the consumption is likely not to differ significantly during winter.
We have tested the 6e both in summer and winter, and the variations were less than expected.
Charging – Faster Than Many
The battery has a capacity of 76 kWt net and 78 kWt gross. The maximum charging power specified is 195 kW, but in our tests we actually saw around 200 kW shortly after the car was connected, with only 1 percent of the battery remaining.
Moreover, this power level remains high for a long time. Even above 70 percent battery capacity, it stays above 100 kW.
In our charging test, it took the car 21 minutes to reach 80 percent from 10 percent, while it took 33 minutes to reach 90 percent from 10 percent.
The battery cannot be heated manually or automatically via the navigation system. There is a form of spot heating for the battery before departure, and our measurements with 6e show activity during driving and while parked, suggesting it maintains the battery temperature, but it lacks the usual battery heating you’d expect when heading to a fast charger.
Price and Competitors
The Mazda CX-6e starts at 428,000 kroner, and it’s undoubtedly one of the car’s strongest selling points. Even the most affordable version comes well equipped, featuring electric seat adjustment, a head-up display, and a panoramic sunroof.
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The Takumi Plus model offers 21-inch wheels, a two-tone interior, and digital side mirrors. The latter is a reason to choose the cheapest version in my opinion, as the mirrors give a poor indication of how far behind cars are, especially on highways — and they change their angle when you use your turn signals. This function can actually be turned off.
The interior mirror is even worse. The camera is located in an external housing and quickly gets dirty, and when the sun is behind you, the mirror appears as if you’re looking through paper. Stick with regular mirrors and save money.
The Mazda CX-6e doesn’t fit well among the four-wheel-drive bestsellers. Although these are also sold as rear-wheel-drive models, very few people choose them.
Its competitors are the inexpensive Chinese models, available with both two-wheel and four-wheel drive. The Byd Seal U, Changan Deepal 07, and Voyah Courage are large vehicles in the same price range.
There are also exciting budget options like the Zeekr 7GT and Xpeng P7+. The Xpeng L03 will also be a strong competitor, though it has a shorter overall length. It also has a slightly smaller trunk space.
If any of these seem interesting to you, we recommend checking out our new electric car comparison tool. There you can easily set your criteria and compare vehicles.
Conclusion
The Mazda CX-6e is a lot of car for its price. It offers ample space in the rear seat, plenty of features, surprisingly low fuel consumption in our tests, and faster charging compared to vehicles in the VW group, for example.
But those who have been loyal Mazda customers will be disappointed. This feels more like a decent Chinese electric car with a Mazda logo than the driver-focused Mazda we’re used to.
However, if rear-wheel drive works for you, the CX-6e offers the chance to get a large SUV at a very low price from a well-established brand.
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