The trend in the automotive industry is now towards embracing pure electric power as the mainstream, and continues to reduce the exhaust of internal combustion engines through turbocharging or electrification of powertrains. Mazda, however, chose to go the other way, announcing a new rear-drive platform a little earlier, paired with a newly developed in-line 6-cylinder gasoline and diesel engine. Not only that, but according to Mazda's European head of product development and engineering, they will work hard to keep the MX-5 from being electrified.
In the class of two-door convertible sports cars, Mazda's MX-5 can be regarded as an evergreen model, which has a stable performance in Asia, Europe and the United States. With its compact body and light weight, gasoline engine and rear-wheel drive setting, the MX-5 offers plenty of driving pleasure, despite its exaggerated ferocious output. In the face of this electric trend, as a brand of popularity and stable sales of MX-5, will it also change? Perhaps replaced by a more powerful pure electric powertrain, or even further modified to an AWD four-wheel drive configuration, so that this two-door convertible can also have the strength of a mainstream performance car.
In the same class, the MX-5's sales performance and popularity have a good level, Mazda's head of european product development and engineering department said that the MX-5 will still be the MX-5 in everyone's mind, this car is not only one of the brand's signatures, but also received a very unique treatment. At least at this point in time, the MX-5 will maintain the same size and fuel engine matching equation.
But Mazda also admits that maybe one day the MX-5 will have to be transformed into an electric car, but they will still try to maintain the elements that make the MX-5 popular with fans. Therefore, the MX-5 will not be changed to share the platform with other car series, so as to avoid losing the characteristics of a pure rear-drive setting. The ND generation MX-5 currently on sale has not yet been exactly released, but the original factory said that it may not be so fast, and a generation with a product life of more than 10 years is no problem for Mazda, because the MX-5 is not a mainstream product and has a relatively unique positioning. This statement may imply that the ND Generation MX-5, published in 2014, will not be updated until at least 2024.