Mazda’s unconventional but innovative and efficient 3.3–litre straight-six turbodiesel, and its 2.5-litre, four-cylinder plug-in hybrid petrol, make for quite starkly different ways to power this car. Like the equivalent CX-60, the PHEV narrowly misses the 40-mile electric range necessary to put it into an eight-per-cent company car tax band – but even so, Mazda expects it to account for the majority of UK registrations.
Mazda still isn’t as practised as with PHEV powertrains though, or perhaps as committed to them, as some car-makers – and with this CX-80, that much is fairly clear. This is a less refined car than you may expect it to be: either as a top-of-the-range model, a big SUV with luxurious aspirations, or simply as an electrified passenger car.
The electric motor squeaks and whines away gently when it’s running in EV mode – which it’ll do with decent low-speed performance and drivability, although only for about 30 miles before the battery runs flat (which doesn’t feel very 2024).
Then, when the petrol engine starts, it runs with some apparent coarseness and vibration. Outright performance feels fairly strong. But because that engine’s a bit noisy and needs to rev to make torque – and also because the eight-speed gearbox (which uses a clutch rather than a torque converter) isn’t the smoothest – this isn’t an especially enticing or enjoyable car to drive quickly. Neither is it very economical in ‘range-extended’ combustion running: think low-30s mpg.
The 3.3-litre diesel option is, however, much better. Its 406lb ft of torque feels almost as accessible as the PHEV’s equivalent, and is even more influential in turning the car into something effortless in its delivery style. It’s slightly less mechanically refined than an equivalent six-pot from BMW or Mercedes-Benz might be – but it takes to hard work really well, moves the CX-80s bulk really easily, mates better with the car’s eight-speed automatic gearbox, and can close in on a real-world 50-mpg in typical UK motorway running.
