Mazda MX-30 - Range, charging & running costs

The main issue that pegs the Mazda MX-30’s appeal back is its short range. The official figure is 124 miles, which is behind its rivals, and in the real world we found a range of around 110 miles was more realistic. 

The range-extending MX-30 R-EV offers a longer range thanks to the addition of a petrol engine, but even this version only makes the most sense if you don’t use it frequently for long trips, because that’s where it’s the least efficient.

Electric range, battery life and charge time

The MX-30 uses a relatively small 35.5kWh battery, so it charges at a home plug quite quickly. It can draw up to 6.6kW, so a 0-100 per cent charge takes five-and-a-half hours in the electric model, or just two-and-a-half hours for the R-EV on a home charger. Using a three-pin plug increases those figures to 15 hours, 30 minutes and seven hours, 30 minutes respectively. You can use an app called MyMazda to connect to the car and see its charge state among other options.

The range-extender MX-30 has a surprisingly large fuel tank at 50 litres, so along with just over 50 miles of all-electric range from the 17.8kWh battery you could drive for a total of about 420 miles with a full tank of fuel, according to official figures. It’s all about convenience here because on a long trip you can choose to fill up with fuel rather than having to stop and charge, as you would with the electric version.

Mazda provides both versions of the MX-30 with a pair of Type 2 charging cables as standard, one for charging from a domestic 3-pin plug socket and a second for use with public and wallbox chargers, while 50kW DC charging is available that can take the EV from 20-80 per cent capacity in 26 minutes.

Tax

All MX-30s duck below the £40,000 mark so they avoid the expensive car supplement, while company car tax costs are low as well. Lower-rate taxpayers can expect to pay just £573 for Benefit-in-Kind tax in the 2024/25 period for the top-spec R-EV Makoto version, for example, and that’s the most expensive model in the line-up. The electric models cost even less, with a maximum cost of £129 in the 2024/25 tax year for 20 per cent rate payers.

Insurance groups

All electric MX-30s are in at least insurance group 19, which is reasonable for a pure EV because they tend to sit in higher groups than the equivalent petrol or diesel models. The R-EV version is slightly more expensive to cover, because the groups rise to 22 for the mid-range Prime-Line and 23 for the range-topping Makoto model.

Depreciation

Our data shows that the MX-30 loses a chunky 67 to 71 per cent of its value over three years or 36,000 miles, and it’s the top-spec Makoto R-EV that’s hit the most. This is bad for the first owners, but could make the MX-30 a used bargain in the future.

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