Mazda Details Next-Generation CX-5 Hybrid And Electrification Roadmap

The current generation of the Mazda CX-5 has been with us for about eight years. We’ve witnessed this crossover blossom from its arrival in the Philippines in 2017, as well as how it evolved since then. However, eight years is still a pretty long time these days. While the company has already confirmed that a next-generation Mazda CX-5 hybrid is coming out sometime in 2025, more details have been revealed today in its second-quarter financial results.

The next-generation Mazda CX-5 is confirmed to come out sometime in 2025, and as the brand’s global best-seller, the CX-5 will play a pivotal role in Mazda’s Phase 2 electrification plan. Phase 1 is currently ongoing, wherein the North American market CX-50 received the RAV4’s Toyota Hybrid System, but as part of Phase 2, the next-generation CX-5 will be using a hybrid system that Mazda developed.

While the Mazda brand’s financial position is currently strong, especially with record-breaking sales in the North American market, the company will also reduce the complexity of the next-generation Mazda CX-5 by 60 percent. Though they did not exactly detail how this will be achieved, this will probably be through simplification of available features and upholstery choices across different variants.

Now, for its electrification plans, Mazda’s Phase 2 plan, which begins in 2025, will see the company release its first full electric vehicle (EV) that will utilize Mazda’s first dedicated EV platform. A second EV will also be released exclusive to the Chinese market, and it will follow the footsteps of the Mazda EZ-6 as this crossover EV will likewise be a joint venture project with Changan.

Mazda’s first dedicated EV platform will be developed by the brand’s now one-year-old electric division casually called “e-Mazda”. This business division is now composed of 300 members, and alongside it is the rotary engine division that was announced earlier this year. Through e-Mazda, the company will also strengthen its software engineering team with a plan to move the team to Tokyo.

Finally, the internal combustion engine (ICE) will still play a transitionary role for the brand as it plans to release a successor to its Skyactiv-G engines called Skyactiv-Z. Skyactiv-Z will be Mazda’s cleanest and most efficient engine if it hits the market in 2027, and it will use the lambda one combustion method. If this sounds familiar, that’s a strategy that Porsche employed when developing the 911 Carrera GTS T-Hybrid‘s engine. Lambda one enables “high thermal efficiency by realizing super lean burn combustion over a wide range from low to high rpm”.