Mazda’s upcoming rear-wheel drive straight-six SUV could be making its official appearance as soon as next year according to an international report. It’s not yet clear whether this will be a next-generation CX-5 or be an entirely new model.
According to Drive, Mazda’s Australian managing director Vinesh Bhindi confirmed “We anticipate the arrival of new generation, large platform SUVs arriving in 2022.”
The identity of this new model isn’t clear but the large platform has already been confirmed to be a rear-wheel drive one that houses a straight-six engine paired to a 48-volt mild hybrid system. Certain rumours suggest that this can be a next-generation CX-5 but other reports have been saying that this car could even be badged as the CX-50.
We can also expect this platform to be used on the next-generation Mazda6 as well as the larger CX-8 and CX-9 offerings. The publication suggests that a coupe-styled version, as seen with the CX-4, could be in the works as well for a global market release.
According to a recent report, Bhindi confirmed this during a presentation recently. “Mazda continues to invest in high-efficiency combustion engines, with Skyactiv-X, and the new generation straight-six engine family that will power our new-generation large-platform products, which is CX-5 and above,” Bhindi told Australian media.
We’ve known about this new rear-wheel drive platform since 2019, when Mazda snuck in the mention of a longitudinal engine layout during a fiscal presentation, but this is the first time the company has confirmed that the model will move over to this architecture.
This would effectively turn the Japanese SUV into something of a BMW X3 competitor, which means it’ll be somewhat more expensive than the current-generation model. The aforementioned Mazda6 sedan’s shift to the new rear-wheel drive platform will be a derivative of the company’s new Multi-Solution Scalable Architecture. This was announced as part of the company’s electrification drive earlier this year. To that end, the new premium products will surely be hybridised to some extent.
