Mazda 6e Fastback review: Don’t buy that Tesla Model 3 yet

[SINGAPORE] Two things make the Mazda 6e a proper electric car in my book. First, I could pre-cool its cabin from the comfort of home, using nothing but an app and a taste for decadence. Second, it has a frunk – a genuinely useful 72-litre one.

The real question is whether this sleek fastback is also a proper Mazda. It’s worth asking because the Japanese didn’t conjure it up by themselves. Behind that gorgeous, backlit faux grille and underneath the shapely body sits a platform from Changan, the Chinese car company that hawks Deepals and Avatrs here.

Elsewhere, you’ll find close cousins of the Mazda in the form of the Deepal S07 and SL3, but the 6e isn’t exactly a version of them in different clothes. Instead, it’s a car that somewhat approaches Mazda’s high standards. The quick steering gives it fast reflexes, and the chassis is balanced in a way that lets it dance through bends.

But it’s a heavy car, and the dampers sometimes struggle to keep the body well composed when the pace picks up, so it ultimately lacks the fluidity that you expect of a Mazda. Think of the 6e as a car meant to serve up comfort and refinement instead, and you’ll appreciate it more. 

The suspension walks that narrow path between firmness and floatiness well, and the acceleration is doled out smoothly rather than snappily. The heart rate slows when you’re behind the wheel, but in a good way.

The 6e apparently has lots of hardware made to Mazda’s specifications, including the suspension arms and steering knuckles, but teaming up with Changan wasn’t a bad idea. By volume, the state-owned giant is more than double Mazda’s size, and then some.

But whatever is going on under the skin is less captivating than the Mazda’s skin itself. The 6e won World Car Design of the Year at the 2026 World Car Awards, so if you reckon this is a spectacularly good-looking car, you’re certainly not alone.

It’s very Mazda inside, too, in the sense that the cabin looks and feels like it was furnished by someone with money and taste. Mind you, the test car’s tan nappa leather and quilted suede upholstery are a S$6,000 option. I would probably spend the extra money because life would be more grim with the standard car’s black leatherette interior.

The digital stuff is where the Mazda feels most Chinese. Its touchscreen is big, bright, sharp and responsive, but it’s also bewildering in a number of ways, and a far cry from the user-friendly Mazda norm.

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You have to press a virtual button marked “Normal” to put the air-con into eco mode, and tap “Eco” to put it into normal mode. And goodness knows what the button marked “Int panor” means, but you have to wonder why they didn’t just spell it out in full, given that the touchscreen measures all of 14.6 inches diagonally.

In the back, the sweeping roofline that makes this car so photogenic makes headroom tight, and rear visibility suffers for it, thanks to a letterbox rear windscreen.

The boot fares better though, offering 465 litres that swallows bulky cargo easily, especially if you exploit the car’s fastback configuration, which gives you more loading height than the typical sedan.

The range and charging are competitive, too. The 78 kilowatt-hour battery pack serves up a claimed 560 km, and at its fastest the Mazda can juice up from 10 to 80 per cent in 24 minutes. 

Those numbers put the 6e in the company of such electric sedans as the IM Motors IM 5, the BYD Seal, the ubiquitous Tesla Model 3 and, when it’s launched, the facelifted version of the Hyundai Ioniq 6.

That Mazda’s new electric car is in the mix with those rivals is an accomplishment in itself, given how slow the Japanese have been to move beyond combustion, so working with the Chinese has been a smart move. Changan’s platform gives this car its credibility, but the Mazda bits are what make it desirable. 

Mazda Mazda6e Fastback GT

Motor power/Torque 258 hp/290 Nm Battery type/Net capacity Lithium Iron Phosphate/78 kWh Charging time/Type 8 hours (11 kW AC), 24 minutes 10 to 80 per cent (194 kW DC) Range 560 km 0-100 kmh 7.3 seconds Top speed 175 kmh Efficiency 16.1 kWh/100 km Agent Trans Eurokars Mazda Price S$235,888 with COE  Available Now