How European tuning shaped the “timeless” Mazda 6e that will arrive in New Zealand

The Mazda 6e is the first electric vehicle to be offered locally with a platform developed by Changan Mazda Automobile based in Nanjing, China. This venture is a 50:50 joint partnership between Mazda and Changan Automobile.

While the name Changan may be unfamiliar to most Kiwis, the origins of the company stretch back to 1862, originally set up as a military supply factory, before producing their first car in 1959. Changan now oversees three major brands in their home market - Avatar, Changan and Deepal - the latter has been expanding rapidly in the Asia-Pacific region including Australia and is expected to launch in New Zealand in the future.

Development and fine-tuning of the Mazda 6e Kiwis will experience for themselves was spearheaded by Mazda Europe, specifically their European R&D Centre in Oberusel, Germany. The operation is led by Christian Schultze, Director of Research & Operations for Mazda Europe. We sat down with him to discuss Mazda’s latest EV.

Read our NZ Exclusive First Drive report of the Mazda 6e

“For me, this car (Mazda 6e) is the super elegant version of one of our most important cars, the Mazda 6,” said Schultze.

“CX-5 is our biggest seller of the last few years, but Mazda 6 is the classical Mazda family sedan. I feel that this Mazda 6e has such a good combination of being modern, yes, but also timeless and it's absolutely recognisable. This is a Mazda car and not like anything else. It is, for me, really a logical, super elegant Mazda in this segment.”

It’s not just the suspension that was tuned by Mazda, the Mazda 6e body and interior was designed entirely in-house between their studios in Japan and Europe.

"We have the (exterior) design that is made by Mazda, we have the interior, everything is made for Mazda,” said Schultze.

The platform and battery local Mazda 6e feature is based on the Deepal SL03 liftback sedan sold in China from 2022. While it’s true much of the base is shared between the two models, engineering efforts led by Mazda Europe mean the two models will drive completely differently.

“We focus on the points where we really understood our European customers have really strongly defined divergences from China’s market,” said Schultze.

“So we know in China there's a very big need for ultimate comfort for people driving in the rear. That means they want a very quiet suspension, even though it may become a little soft. 

“On the other hand, here in Europe, we have several countries where you can drive 130km/h or even faster on the highway. That means you need certain chassis capabilities for high speed stability, and people to enjoy the lateral dynamics of Mazdas. We could not make a radical change (to the platform), so we had to work with the things that are changeable like dampers and springs.”

Much of the Mazda 6e’s fine-tuning, that we know about publicly at least, happened on the European continent. With a mixture of testing on Mazda’s own German test facility, public roads and even track testing in famous locations like Germany’s Nurburgring. 

“We have everything here (Mazda’s European R&D centre in Oberursel, Germany)," said Schultze.

"We have super high speed tracks. We go to the Nurburgring. Yes, we have a subscription for the Nurburgring. We drive on normal roads, because that’s what the customer experiences our cars.

“So we have a set of test tracks, public roads where we say, Oh, this is especially good for bad road services, this one is especially good for road undulation, this is very good for high speed. And (we can see) how does the suspension survive with this. So we have a huge set of roads where we test drive our cars around, and that is absolutely sufficient.”

The Mazda 6e is the brand’s first rear-wheel drive model since the RX-8 that ended production in 2012. Schultze says this gave their engineers a chance to develop a new kind of driving experience for the Mazda range.

“This is a rear-wheel drive car, which is a little bit new to us. We have of course MX-5, but this is a completely different vehicle concept,” he said. 

“Our Mazda 6 was front- or all-wheel drive. But I think this rear-wheel drive car also gave  certain options to us. I believe it is a really well-handling car, and also the steering feel is good. It's very much more than a rear-wheel drive sports car, it’s (tuned) towards more comfort and stability. But it's very responsive. 

“We want the driver to be able to to control the vehicle in their own way, and he (the driver) gets (feedback) from the vehicle which tells him what the vehicle is doing.

“We cannot overcome physics. We have to live with physics, yes, and we don't want to be surprised by physics. So I think the chassis overall, I think we did a really good job, and we did it to a great deal here in Europe. Our R&D Center was deeply involved in this. We have really tried a lot, together with our suppliers, to make it in that way. I'm pretty happy how it turned out.”

Kiwis will be able to decide for themselves once the new Mazda 6e arrives in dealerships later this year.

Read our NZ Exclusive First Drive report of the Mazda 6e