Advert
The Mazda6e is the brand’s first mainstream electric car, offering stylish looks, lots of space, a good driving experience, a practical driving range of 348 miles, and 200 kW rapid charging.
We’ve already driven the Mazda6e in the UK in 2025, but the car on offer was a left-hand drive European-spec vehicle. The right-hand drive UK-spec car is now here, and there are some improvements, so is this now a car that we can recommend more positively?
We think Mazda has given us some excellent-looking cars over recent years, and they’ve also generally been good to drive. However there has been a complete lack of electric models on offer, with the exception of the CX-30, which, with its small size and short range, was always going to be a niche product. We now have the Mazda6e, which offers more space than the CX-30, and a lot more range, and so is of more interest to the fleet market as well as retail customers.
The D-segment Mazda6e fastback saloon/hatchback body style looks stylish, with generous rear legroom on offer, and a 466-litre boot (to the roofline), or up to 1,074 litres with the rear seats folded. There’s also a 72-litre front trunk or ‘frunk’. Our test car had an interior with interesting colours and textures – Tan Nappa and Suede cloth woven fabric.
Whereas the European-spec car that we drove last year had two battery (and charging) options – a 68.8 kWh battery with 165 kW DC charging, or an 80 kWh battery with 90 kW DC charging – the final UK-spec car just has one battery – a 78kWh LFP unit, with 200kW DC rapid charging. The previous 68.8 kWh unit provided up to 297 miles of range, and the larger 80 kWh unit offered a range of 342 miles; the new 78kWh battery beats both of those, with a WLTP electric driving range of 348 miles.
Although the Mazda6e looks like a Mazda, under the skin the electric platform is shared with the Changan Deepal S07 (Changan is Mazda’s Chinese partner).
The Mazda 6e has a towing weight of 1,500 kg.
Unlike all three previous generations of the Mazda6 with a combustion engine which had a front-wheel drive chassis, the Mazda6e is rear-wheel drive, so it delivers more rewarding handling – and lack of torque steer – than a front-wheel drive EV. The car’s UK launch started off in Liverpool with a route through North Wales to Conwy via Llyn Brenig and the outskirts of Clocaenog Forest. In other words, the roads offered a good test of the car’s dynamics, and the 6e demonstrated enjoyable handling, comfortable ride quality, and with 258 PS and a 0-62 mph acceleration time of 7.3 seconds, sufficient but not scorching performance. An electronically-extendable rear spoiler enhances stability at 56 mph and above.
The Mazda6e’s 4,921mm length and 2,090 kg kerb weight was never going to deliver the direct responses and agility of an MX-5, but a bit more sharpness would be more in keeping with the driving experience associated with the Mazda brand.
Gears are selected via a stalk on the right-hand side of the steering column (we experienced a few occasions when the car didn’t change into the desired gear). There’s no setting on the gear selector, and no paddles, to change the level of brake regen. There are two main drive modes – Normal and Sport – but surprisingly, no Eco option, which is a basic feature on most EVs – along with an Individual mode.
As is the case with most EVs with a Chinese base, the Mazda6e’s dashboard has no buttons. All car controls have to be accessed through the 14.6-inch central touchscreen. There are some shortcut buttons along the bottom of the screen, but you need to delve into the touchscreen to adjust all other car controls, including basic items such as the door mirrors, which isn’t user-friendly for drivers.
There’s also a 10.2-inch driver’s display, a head-up display, and a touchscreen for rear passengers, allowing the adjustment of climate settings and the electric sunshade on the Takumi Plus grade.
Apart from the new battery and DC charging speed, one of the other changes for this new UK model relates to the ADAS system. Mazda received feedback from last year’s drive of the European model that the ADAS system was over-intrusive in terms of beeps and boings. The company says this has been addressed, and there were certainly very few beeps with this 2026 car. Another change was to the lane departure warning system, to keep it switched off; but our test car kept switching it back on by itself, which resulted in lots of horrible wrenching of the steering wheel from the driver, which requires a lot of searching for menus and sub-menus on the touchscreen to switch it off again (you need to look for the ‘smart drive’ sub-menu which isn’t that obvious).
An American woman’s voice also kept telling us that there were sharp bends ahead, when there weren’t any, as well as giving a running commentary on average speed limit cameras.
We’ll take Mazda’s word that that the ADAS over-sensitivity issues have been resolved on other cars, but this didn’t seem to be the case for our test car.
The Mazda6e has a WLTP combined electric driving range of 348 miles. It wasn’t possible to test the real-world range on the launch event, but based on our drive from Liverpool through North Wales to Conwy and back we’d estimate that 325 miles is a realistic expectation. The 6e has a WLTP consumption figure of 3.9 miles/kWh.
One key improvement compared to one of the battery options on the European model is the new maximum DC rapid charging rate of 200 kW, which should deliver a 10% to 80% charge in just 24 minutes. The 6e can be AC charged at up to 11 kW.
The Mazda6e is available in two trim levels, Takumi (£38,995) and Takumi Plus (£39,995), and in seven metallic colours: Aero Grey, Crystal White Pearl, Machine Grey, Polymetal Grey, Deep Crystal Blue, Jet Black and Soul Red Crystal, as per our test car, which is a £1,000 option, taking the total price of our test car to £40,995.
The Mazda6e has a battery warranty of 8 years or 100,000 miles.
The Mazda6e looks stylish, it offers lots of space, and has a practical electric driving range of 348 miles. Compared to one of the two European-spec cars, the DC rapid charging rate of 200 kW is a significant and much-needed improvement. With rear-wheel drive, the driving experience was enjoyable on the Welsh A and B-roads of the launch event, with comfortable ride quality, but the focus is on comfort rather than sharpness in the driving dynamics. Along with most Chinese and Chinese-based EVs, there are no physical buttons in the cabin, so all car controls have to be adjusted through the touchscreen, including mirrors, drive modes, brake regen, etc. Mazda says that one key improvement for the 2026 UK-spec car is the reduction in the sensitivity of ADAS systems, but our test car kept switching the lane departure warning system back on, which resulted in the steering wheel being wrenched from your hands if you drove near a white line. The American lady in the car’s infotainment system also kept telling us that there were sharp bends ahead, even if we were on a straight road. So the Mazda6e has potential, and its Chinese platform helps it to be sold at a competitive sub-£40,000 price for both trim levels, but we would want to experience the promised improvement in the ADAS systems to make it less intrusive and annoying. In the meantime the Mazda6e is awarded a Green Car Guide rating of 7 out of 10.
Drive an EV for less than you think with Select Car Leasing 
Save 20-50% on an EV through salary sacrifice with The Electric Car Scheme 
ClearWatt supports buyers, sellers and owners of EVs with app-based battery health testing and detailed EV data insights available for every used EV in the UK. Take the stress out of buying a used EV with ClearWatt and save 10% on all their products with promo code “GCG10”. 
Zapmap: UK's No.1 EV charging points app 2025. Zapmap helps EV drivers search for EV chargers, plan longer journeys and pay for charging. 
With Pod, you're in good hands. With over 15 years of EV charging experience, drivers trust Pod to keep their EVs charged and ready to go. 
Paul Clarke, GreenCarGuide Editor
