2024 Mazda CX-90 Plug-In Hybrid Review | This or the Turbo Six?
Well good day everyone welcome to a snowy edition of beyond the test drive it’s been a couple years since we’ve had any snow of significance so having a lot of fun today have also had a lot of fun this week in the cx90 PAB that’s right
We have the plug-in hybrid and I’ve had it for the week now tomorrow we got to turn it in that’s sad but I have to honestly say I would need way more than a week in this car to unpack it it has got a lot going on which I think is cool
And it’s fun and it’s got multiple personalities and the question today is really does it save any fuel at all with the battery and is it even fun to drive much like the inline six styling wise though I will point out that you cannot get the peev without the plastic
Cladding in the black all down around here and that’s perfectly okay because I think in the white the contrast is striking when we first saw this I’ll throw up the white inline six without the black cladding here so you can contrast it I’ll also put some
Footage up of when this thing is clean but this is how your cx90 is going to look if you live in a Northern climate and again we’ve been having a good time with it today everything is the same back here I should mention that we do have the premium plus this is the
Highend this is roughly $588,000 one thing I will point out with the peev is you get more power back back here on this AC you get 1,500 Watts over here you get 150 watts the inline 6 does have the 150 WTS but man 1500 watts is
Plenty to go camping in it’s it’s a really useful amount of power so that’s a really nice feature and you can enable it right there again you do get a spare tire back here which is always good even with the peab because the battery is up there somewhere they don’t lose any
Space there again check out the other video because that will go into some of these features this one unlock that this one is all black and I really if I were going to get this this is the interior I would get this black leather again this is the premium
Interior and you do have the captain’s chairs this is considered a seven passenger configuration but for all practicality this is a six passenger given the size of the back seat again this is top of the line so you do get heated seats back here and what I like
About this is you do not get that silly center console so I don’t know it just feels more spacious it’s a little bit more practical if you want to go and store some stuff along here you do get a big hump here so a little bit
Challenging if you have a dog you want to lay them somewhere you’ll have to put them in the back you know I’m a little neutral about the silver sort of snake skin stuff it looks really good on the door over there you know it’s better
Than shiny black that’s for sure I I do like the black the the matte black that they have in the uh in some of the other trims I wish you could get that on the console here this kind of looks like a wrap and uh but all in all not
Complaining still much better than shiny piano black again everything looks nice here you get some nice stitching here really elegant looking this is sort of CX 50ish kind of vibe going on there but what we really want to look at is under the hood it’s cold this is where things are
Interesting did that thing way up there you can extend it as far as you want but under the hood here we have a 4cylinder this is the 2.5 this is basically look at this guy look at that so down there I don’t know can you see down there that is the
Steering rack with the electric power steering motor you can see over there oh man this is so cool you got so much room but anyway the inine line six field all the way out to here this is the 2.5 you’re going to see this across the Mazza lineup I’m sure there are some
Changes fundamentally with it given the fact that this stops and starts constantly but pretty well sorted and the business end of this engine as far as timing chains and belts is all on the front but yeah really really simple engine compartment compared to the inline 6 there is an electric motor back
There there is a battery back there and an 8-speed transmission just like the inline 6 Maza recommends premium fuel and you will get a total of 323 horsepower at 6,000 RPM and a healthy 369 lb feet of torque all at 4,000 RPMs with the four cylinder contributing 189
Horsepower 184 lb feet and a 68 kwatt Electric Motor providing 173 horsepower and 199 lb fet of torque premium fuel seems silly but it’s recommended as you will only lose about four horsepower and none of the torque if you go with regular electricity storage is provided by a
17.8 Kow battery fuel economy is where it gets complicated with these PES but as a hybrid this gets 25 MP gallon overall pretty much what the inline 6 gets and if you do charge this up at home it gets 56 mpge which will vary wildly depending on your specific use
Case all right so let’s go take a drive do a little bit of tur or tap here today talk a little bit more about price while we fire this up and that’s that you get the preferred you get the premium and the premium plus they’re all
In the 50s I personally would like like to see one or two trim levels Max I just think the prefer just drop some features that for 52,000 you should have but when you jump up to a premium plus you pretty much get everything that you need real quick on
These on these uh displays and drive modes again right down here your drive mode again when you turn this car on you can set it in there to sort of bi itss itself to EV mode EV mode is where you’re just going to be driving on
Battery and this is the gauges you get for the EV mode if I go up to normal mode the gauges get quite plain looking in normal mode that’s pretty much the hybrid mode here but Maza has done a really good job with their digital gauges to keep them simple and then
Sport mode you get the classic these things do take a little while to turn sport mode you get a tachometer and uh looks just like a regular car and then finally EV you get an off-road mode also here 3500 lb Towing uh for this uh there
Is no tow modes or anything like that but 3500 lb whereas in the inline six if you go up to Turbo S you get 5,000 lb so something uh to keep in mind there you do get on this top trim you get all your surround cameras and you get Hill
Descent control which is super super nice a lot of people say that’s for off-roading but I’ve had Hill descent save my bacon coming down a snowy pass out in Colorado in a Toyota Highlander excellent excellent HVAC controls not going to get into this system today uh
But this is uh you can touch that this is Wireless Apple and Android auto again in this Premium Plus trim I think the premium trim adds that also all right enough about that let’s go and talk driving we’ll talk gas mileage we’ll get it out on the
Highway but while we tool along here in the park I’m going to go ahead and put it in the EV mode and go ahead and get the elephant out of the room and that’s EV range so this is rated at 26 EV miles on a full battery it’s been cold this week this
Car has about 7,000 miles on it he people are sleigh riding again this is cool to see because this has been rare in these parts the last couple years 26 miles that’s what Mazda says it’s been cold this week the night it was in the 40s I got about 20 miles on this
Meter when it was fully charged and then practically when I took it out on the highway I got about 15 miles so you know that’s I’m assuming is pure cold weather related this morning it was about 25° and I fully charged it and it said I had about 17 miles and then practically
When you get it out there it’s always a couple less than maybe 15 so charging this every night this has been you know that’s a that’s an expense that’s probably four bucks where you know where we live in electricity charges when you take efficiency and things like that
Into account you know that’s not a lot of miles per you know that’s just not very efficient as far as money goes but when it comes to driving this again I’m am in EV mode here let’s go ahead and put it in EV mode one thing
About the EV mode it it is extremely Pleasant to drive in EV mode this takes a long time to get up to 60 but nine times out of 10 I I have a hard time telling the difference when this flops over from EV mode to hybrid mode just because in normal everyday driving
You’re not going to be flooring it but from 0 to 20 0 to 40 20 to 40 in pure EV mode you’re only getting about half the horow but I have found that plenty in everyday driving and the most disappointing part about being in EV mode has
Been when the battery runs out because it’s so pleasant to drive it’s so quiet but on the other hand it’s very very natural because this thing is still shifting through its 8-speed transmission you still have the Turning of the transmission so there’s a little bit of a mechanical mechanical feeling to it as
You’re driving it in EV mode and again when the engine comes on in hybrid mode it’s it’s a very subtle difference it’s very very smooth transition so sometimes I’ve had to look down and go am I in EV mode or is the engine running because it’s very very very natural so anyway
That’s the elephant in the room as far as battery range I’ll talk a little bit about uh one day I did take it out about 140 miles Highway trip I started out on the battery and then I went in hybrid mode when I ended up that 40 M trip I was at
About 32 MPGs that’s not a lot more than the inline six that we tested that’s very very close to 30 m per gallon also another good example right now is again charging this every night for the last 65 miles playing in the snow a lot of
Idling warming the car up stop and go just no zero highway I would call it almost like a city environment over the last 65 miles the onboard computer is saying 29 so that’s really really good again you have to factor in the fact that we did did charge it for the last
Couple nights in addition to the gas to get the 29.2 so I you know I just want a bigger battery I want more range again if you’re in a warmer climate I’m assuming I’m not getting the 26 because of the temperature you know this battery is at
The temperature that it is and range is going to suffer pretty greatly there’s no heater on it there’s no heat pump like you see and like a full like a full EV but just on a road like this even though it’s a little snowy and Slick
This thing is very very planted and as the other inline 6 cx90 this is just a lot of fun to drive I would dare say and again I’d have to drive them back to back this feel maybe because of its weight I feel like this is a little bit more
Planted and again in EV mode where you get these really really smooth shifts and you almost a can’t even tell the transmission is Shifting this thing is actually a little bit more fun to drive on a road like this because when you’re in a turn you
Can kind of goose it a little bit and it feels purely like a rear whe rear wheeel drive car which is how it’s biased ride quality is Mazda firm like in all of their cars you’re going to feel the road here the steering is has zero play in it
It’s fairly slow but it works really really well in this type of car and it’s pretty heavy Also let’s just kind of get the brakes on there now we did have this out in some deeper snow this morning and if you check out any of the other reviews on Mazda’s all-wheel
Drive system it works really really well whether it’s in sport mode EV mode EV mode it will kick in the engine regardless if I want to kick the engine in now now that I’m in EV mode and we’re going to do that right here on this uphill
Dig you have to go pass the stop in the floor there’s a little bit of a button there and if I push it down and the motor kicks in and boy does she wake up 60 so this thing really really does wake up and push it I have done 0 to 60 runs
In this this week I cannot get less than 7 Seconds no matter what I do and I think it has to do with temperature I think all the other 0 to 60 runs may have been at a warmer temp temperature so the battery may have been able to put
Out a little bit more oomph not quite sure but no matter what I did sport mode I got around 7 Seconds versus what I was seeing in some of the reviews and even uh you know some pretty reputable testing houses got like low sixes so
This to me is a little slower in the winter time than the inline six but again here I am and I just pushed it it’s popped out of EV mode now and I’ll go ahead and go into normal hybrid mode so in the normal hybrid mode
If I have any battery left at all it will try to use it up before it kind of goes back and forth but again the transition I have to kind of look down to see if that little blue EV light is even on to know if the motor is on or
Not these wipers are driving me nuts in Auto all right I have to know I have to look at that blue light because the engine is very very subdued they got it really well isolated it’s only when you Goose it where there’s a lot of Pumped in
Engine noise and it it does sound good it’s it’s synthetic but it does sound good but for the most part this is a really really quiet drivetrain and again the transition back and forth has been I think pretty seamless for Mazda’s first attempt again I don’t know if this one
Has some updates this is a fairly newer one off the production line so I would say in summary as far as the you know it just seems that the motor the electric motor the gas motor the transmission the battery the software it’s all working really really well
Together here I I almost dare say this transmission is a little smoother you know what I’m going to say it’s a lot smoother SM than in the inline 6 again because you got a really big a much bigger I think 60 something kilowatt electric motor that’s getting you off
The line and pushing you another thing about being in EV mode is because there is still that 8-speed transmission with the wet clutch when you’re starting out from a stop you still get a little bit of slip so again it gets it contributes to that natural
Feeling and then when you come to a complete stop the EV motor will actually keep running for a little bit and then it’ll stop and you get a little bit of electric worring I have no problems with the electric noise coming out of this you know it’s an electric car that’s
What electric motors sound like so I have no issue with this sort of electric noise that comes out of this at slow speed when you’re on EV mode or even when you’re stopped and it’s still spinning so the only time I find this four cylinder to be boomy so if I hit it
Pretty hard here that is now if I now if I go past the the the you know if I push all the way through the floor through that switch to tell it I want Full Throttle look at this guy impressive if I go past that switch then
The engine really really booms let’s do that again I’m just going to do regular old acceleration where the motor comes on look to the right there over that Hill that’s pretty sedate and pretty good and that’s full throttles anyway it’s just been interesting to drive this car has three personalities it has this
Sort of sedate eeve mode that I’m Trucking along in here it has sort of it has that hybrid mode where the engine’s coming off and on but still pretty s dat unless you really lay into it and then you have sport mode now this is the most
This has been the most surprising thing about the peev and that’s that unlike a lot of cars sport mode just it helps out a little bit with where the shift points are here when I put this in sport mode this car truly transform so you’ll
See my gaug is here I get a tachometer now there’s no more worried about battery charge that battery there now is just there and it is incredibly Lively and responsive so this is where the peev actually shines over the inline six because it just wakes it up it’s very
Responsive and it’s playful and I think even though the inline 6 at drivetrain is fun to drive this four cylinder with that electric motor coming in the help it and the transmission it’s just very very fun to drive it the roads are still a little too wet here and slick
But go ahead and fourth paddle shift so this is where you will want to use the paddle shifters cuz you can just have a lot of fun and it sounds great like I said unless you get it up you know high RPMs but you can see the 6500 RPM so
This is not an EV anymore this is not definitely not a hybrid or you know a plugin this is just now a fun sporty and and if you like to drive I can see myself actually using this sport mode quite a bit when I want to have a
Little bit of fun when I’m not doing seven passenger SUV thing so to me the sport mode on this is why you get this over the inline six it’s just really really good and it transformed this car this car has a much like it’s gas mileage its performance and its
Personality will also vary quite a bit okay let’s get her out of here now that boost light has come on to say that I’m getting some battery boost it’s a little angry and I like that in a car down shifts are really quick there go ahead and go ahead and downshift here to
Third do some downshifting little r match downshift There now I’m not going to do a braking test here I will tell you that when I first drove this for the first time this the brakes are really touchy I mean the the grab is right at the top of the pedal they give you nothing it probably
Has to do something with the regenerative nature of this but the brakes are strong very natural feeling very firm but unlike the inline six that bite is right at the top you know there is no play so you know they may feel a little touchy if you go out on the test
Drive you go oh these brakes are really really touchy but after you driven this a couple days uh they’re fine all right let’s get her up on the highway Here oh it’s plenty plenty good yeah really diging the sport mode on this this engine will turn off as you’re driving out here uh you’ll see this little thing go down in the charge mode you’ll see the EV light come on if you have a little bit more battery battery
Than we have now so pretty quiet there is no engine noise there’s a lot of wind noise I think that’s from some of the ice that’s still in this car up on this up on the roof anyway I have it’s got some bad aerodynamics right now so so
Yeah a little over 2,000 RPMs at 70 so it’s not bad this is geared a little lower and it’s final drive I think it’s because of that 2.5 doesn’t have the torque to keep this thing going and chugging so they geared a little lower in the final drive uh so that’s really
You can kind of sense that it’s churning a little bit more uh I would say that the inline 6 is a better Cruiser overall uh but uh this is actually still pretty good I’m going to have to wrap this up I actually spent another day with this
Because my final thoughts on this were really getting complicated so I took another day to think about it and know going to provide like four or five major points but the first is just driveability you know let’s just sum this up by the fact that in the week
Eight days I’ve had this not once did I sort of look down at that 8-speed transmission and go what are you doing what what what was that noise what was that thunk I you know I truly expected based on other reviews and based on my first drive of this like seven or eight
Months ago that this thing was going to be a little rough around the edges and I I can say that my experience has been the opposite I think this is really well polished yes you do hear the engine start and stop in the hybrid mode you will notice it slightly but transmission
Wise this thing never misses a beat so I think Maz has done a great job here for their first effort this as far as driveability it’s a very polished system and it feels pretty premium to me now the second thing is just performance I think this is light on its feet I think
It has a lot of spunk and spirit when you put it in sport mode it’s a lot of fun reliability wow that’s the big one right you got a hybrid system with a battery versus that inline six with the turbochargers and people concerned about the engine uh maintenance and getting access
To it I don’t know probably about the the same I would not worry too much about this 2.5 in here it’s pretty well sorted you can get to it easy access you got about a 18 Kow battery here you know I’m thinking whoops I’m thinking the 18 kilowatt
Battery is probably a $2,000 at today’s rate plus labor so I don’t think that’s going to be horrendous to replace if uh if you ever had to so let’s just hop been here but people are going to lease these because they are eligible for the
$7500 tax credit in the US let’s see the other thing as far as you know pricing wise you know that’s where to me I would not pay this for this car I still think the best value in the cx90 is the 280 horsepower srim 200 just the turbo not the estm the
Like the preferred Plus or the premium you know right in the mid the high 40s I think that is I think that’s the value play in the cx90 so for me but the big big big sticking point for me anyway and I thought a lot about this overnight was
The battery range 26 miles I’ve seen people getting up to 30 but that’s an ideal conditions that’s already I think a little low and then you put the weather like on this and you know economically it just doesn’t make sense to charge this uh at the rates and only
Get 15 16 miles of range and it’s not like super cold I think today is like 25° you know and I think in the 40s you know 15 16 18 M of range I don’t know I need a bigger battery I need more range
And I think this is a this is going to evolve to be a really good product and pretty interesting so I really do appreciate you coming along we do need to hear from owners regarding this peav want to know how much you’re spending on gas how much it’s costing you to charge
Because I do think there’s some people out there that would really benefit and save some gas with the peev so we want to hear about you in the comments below as always we want to thank you for coming along with us today and especially our subscribers really
Appreciate you and if you’re not a subscriber think about it we’d love to have you along in 2024 so again thanks for watching today and have a great day morning or evening wherever you may be
Mazda threw the automotive world for a loop when not only did it bring out a whole new rear wheel drive SUV architecture, but it also introduced a brand new in-line turbo six cylinder along with its first ever plug in hybrid. After spending a week in the 2024 Plug-In Hybrid Premium Plus trim, we thought we would strongly prefer one of the two offered drive trains since they are so different. Not the case! While the in-line six turbo is silky smooth, the PHEV actually seems more fun to drive sometimes, especially when fuel economy is not important and the battery is used in sport mode to provide all all 319 horsepower and 369 lb-ft of torque. Do you achieve better fuel savings with this plug in…..after a week we are not quite sure. With only 26 miles of pure EV range, our realistic range in cold temps was only 15-18 miles. 15-18 miles on a full charge that probably cost around $4 is not very efficient and made pure EV operations not cost effective.
#phev #mazda #mazdacx90 #cx90 #grandhighlander
