Mazda, which is not necessarily known yet for its electric cars, gives its vision of the electric model of tomorrow. And according to the Japanese brand, a car with great autonomy will not necessarily be of great interest in the future.
Mazda and electric cars are not (yet) a rolling business. Indeed, the Japanese manufacturer has only one electric model in its catalog for the moment, the Mazda MX-30, but its low autonomy and high price do not necessarily make it an ideal car today.
In an attempt to boost sales, Mazda has also recently presented a model with a range extender.
However, Mazda is indeed working on a future range of electric cars, but obviously, the manufacturer will not necessarily take the same path as others, that is to say bet on autonomy. Indeed, according to Jeffrey Guytonthe president of the North American subsidiary of Mazda, electric cars with a long range are not useful.
The multiplication of charging stations as the number one solution
According to him, buyers’ anxiety about the range of their electric car will gradually disappear, and for good reason. Indeed, with Ihe proliferation of recharging infrastructures, customers will soon no longer ask themselves the question of autonomy. Especially with the solid batteries which promise ranges approaching 1,000 km with recharging times of around 5 minutes. And all this without lithium!
However, Mazda has no intention of developing its own charging network. The Japanese manufacturer is not the only one.
At a time when the Ionity consortium is gaining in power, some major automotive groups believe that it is not their role to invest in charging infrastructure, but rather that of the authorities who are pushing towards the electric car. This is for example the case of Stellantis, which does not count one day being part of the Ionity consortium.
Jeffrey Guyton asserts that the batteries of future electric vehicles will be smaller and lighter. He also thinks that work on the weight of the car, but also technological advances, will make it possible to reduce the weight of the batteries and, consequently, improve autonomy without the need for an XXL battery.
Mazda on the same wavelength as several other manufacturers
The American leader is far from the only one to think that. Indeed, Tesla, through Elon Musk, had already announced that an electric car with a range of 1,000 km “would be useless”while BMW also affirmed the same thing by betting in particular on charging powerall correlated to a denser mesh of the terminals.
On the side of Renault, same story, especially since it would save costs on large batteries and thus reduce the price of electric cars.
This is also the case for Ford, which will offer several types of batteries, but adaptable to all models in the range in the future, while wishing that its electric cars be less complex and with smaller batteries.
What about changing the batteries?
Same story in France on the side of Ademe, which recommends small batteries, to succeed as quickly as possible in the energy transition. Chinese manufacturers have a rather interesting solution: the exchange of batteries (battery swapping) which allows you to choose the size of your battery according to your schedule for the week or month. A small battery for daily trips, and a large battery for going on vacation.
When testing the Nio ET7 electric car, we were able to try out the battery exchange system (Nio Power Swap Station) which allows the batteries to be “recharged” in five minutes. The result is…
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