2024 Mazda CX-90 PHEV AWD Review and Off-Road Test
This is the 2024 Mazda cx90 phev in this video we’re going to check out all the features take it for a drive and then we’re going to put the off-road mode to the test that’s coming up right now on driving sports TV this is the 2024 Mazda cx90 pH it’s a family three row Crossover with an electric twist because this cx90 you can drive up to 26 Mi without using a drop of petrol for families that need to drive short distances on the weekdays but then want to get away on the weekend
This vehicle is a very practical and economical option but the great thing about this being a phev is that if you don’t want to plug it in every single night you can drive it just like a normal hybrid that’s convenience even though full battery electrics are getting most of the attention it’s
Actually phevs that are way more practical for a majority of American buyers if you watch this show regularly you know that I drove a top trim cx90 with the inline 6 just a couple months ago to put it lightly I didn’t like it the suspension was bouncy the
Transmission was clunky it was really expensive and there are better options for that amount of money but most of all I was seriously triggered by that white fabric interior go watch that video if you want to see me hate on the cx90 for a good 20
Odd minutes but with this one we have some pluses first off this is using the more economical phev powertrain but most important it has the black leather interior which looks so much better this specific trim is the premium plus with optional rodium white paint price as you see it here $58,900
Including destination so is this one any better let’s take a look under the hood is a hybrid powertrain combining a 2.5 L inline 4 cylinder with a 68 KW electric motor together the total system output is 323 horsepower and 369 pbet of torque the thanks to a 17.8 KW lithium ion battery
This cx90 can drive up to 26 mi in all electric mode though in my testing I actually did better I got up to 31 miles just driving around town normally with my entire family of four pretty good the transmission is an 8-speed automatic and power goes to all four wheels with a
Clutch based system with wheel breaking to shift power side to side several Drive modes are included like sport EV and my favorite off road which we will be testing a little bit later here at our Peninsula Proving Grounds EPA rates economy at 56 mpge running petrol only it scores 25
MPGs using a level two charger you can charge the battery up to 80% in about 2 hours although I think most home users will probably just plug it into a standard AC socket for overnight charging the tires here are falcon zikes in a 27545 r21 fitment that means that
These are of course rolling on 21in alloy wheels now obviously all terrains would make our off-road testing a little bit more fair but this is what the vehicle comes with so this is what we’re going to test when equipped the cx90 can tow up to 3,500 lb open the trunk and you get
14.9 cubic feet behind the third row 40 behind the second and 74.2 with all rows folded flat in the back here we actually get two AC sockets they support up to 120 volts and 15 00 Watts you also get a 12vt that’s nice with all the seats
Folded flat the question is can we sleep in it I would say kind of there is enough room but it’s not completely flat and there’s large gaps around the captain’s chairs in the second row I do get a captain’s chair at this trim level little fold down ratchet armrest
Which is nice I get a screen here for privacy and I also get three stages of heat plus my own airon Vents and USBC sockets which is all good this beverage holder is kind of flimsy but I guess it works I can of course adjust with
Sliders and tilt as well although to the detriment of whoever is in the third row I do get a light up here although it does blind me when I turn it on overall not bad oh boy so technically I can fit back here it’s not comfortable however uh but I do
Get my own USBC socket a couple cup holders I didn’t get a vent down here which is a nice touch but as far of comfort it’s pretty much non-existent right let me out here we go back in the cx90 are you done yet okay already we’re off to a better
Start here because yes this is a black leather interior and it looks so much nicer than the white interior of the last cx90 I tested just a few months ago overall this is actually really nice the colors on the interior here really work for me I even don’t mind this kind of
Patterned metal at least they didn’t go with you know like a piano black like they are so apt to do steering wheel is wrapped in leather feels great Mazda’s always pretty good with steering wheels and they have all their little controls and small buttons right here so it’s a
Very streamlined look I get paddle shifters back here to control the 8-speed automatic transmission pretty good stuff now this is of course a plug-in electric hybrid which means we have a lot of stuff related to the EV side of the vehicle I can switch different Drive
Modes we have sport normal EV only and then we also have off-road now the EV only mode is only available if you actually have enough charge in the battery um I find that you have to have probably over 5% if it’ll let you do
That at all and then in EV mode you are running strictly on electricity theoretically if you have say a 5 to 10 Mile commute you should be able to go to in back no problem every day without using a drop of gas I think you really
Need to be around 40 mil before it becomes truly useful I had the same complaint with the Grand Cherokee 4 by E because it also didn’t have a long enough of a range but here nor there this is what it has in the menu we have
Some settings to work with how you want to char preconditioning the battery that kind of stuff that does bring me to the infotainment here which I’m not going to Rattle on about it I really don’t like this infotainment I think it’s pretty awful for 2023 even worse for 2024 and
If it’s around in 2025 I fear there might be riots there’s multiple things that aren’t good about it first off it requires a lot of clicking there’s no visual cues as to what you’re looking at everything looks exactly the same EV settings are just as weighted as safety
Settings as our sound settings uh with other makers infotainment systems you at least get some color coding so your eyes know what to go to this it’s all considered exactly the same also this is a touchcreen but you’ll note it doesn’t actually work as a touchcreen uh not
Until you go to Apple carplay or Android auto I really don’t like it when things change only because of a decision not because of a requirement you know one thing Mazda says that it’s better for us to keep our eyes on the road and to use the jog dial
To command things but when you’re doing 50 clicks that does not make it safer that just means you’re clicking a lot and you’re trying to see what is getting clicked on instead of just going boom I touched it because I know where it is and there’s an easy to access color code
Basically I think Mazda needs to go back to the drawing board with this unit the one Saving Grace it has as you will note is is that it actually does support apple carplay wirelessly which I am running right now the same screen does function as a surround View Camera it
Supports tracking lines both going in reverse as well as forward we will see how well this works as a trail cam a little bit later in the main gauge cluster at this trim level we get a digital display the digital display does change depending on your drive mode so
If you’re in off-road mode you get that whole manly kind of gears and dirt look and then if you’re sport mode it goes red it’s a little too Miami for me but you know whatever in the display you do get some customization if you switch into adaptive cruise you get a different
Screen optimized for that and if you want more information there’s a toggle here for info where you will change the right hand dial to show a number of custom settings this trim level does support wireless charging although my iPhone 15 Pro Max barely fits it says
It’s charging and then I also get a 12volt up here I get a couple cup holders here and in here I get a very shallow bin that is shockingly shallow I do get heated and cooled seats these are very comfortable get lots of controls I even get a heated steering wheel which
Is nice above that we have what appears to be a lever for dealing with the airon temperature but it’s actually multiple little push down things my personal preference is that if you are going to have something that you can grab and lift up and down that it should be a
Toggle up and down there’s no reason to have a toggle but then make it just be a single throw down again personal preference I’m sure that won’t bug anybody else okay safety yes this does include adaptive cruise control we have Collision mitigation we have rear cross traffic alerts we have front traffic
Alerts and we get blind spot warning at this trim level the sound is Bose is pretty good and we also have a really nice Panorama sunroof so now that’s all said let’s take this out for for a drive on the road and then we’re going to
Bring it back to our Proving Grounds and see how it does on our easy off-road course and uh yeah I made some changes to the easy off-road course since we took the Palisade on it so I think this vehicle is going to be up for a challenge before we head out let’s
Determine what drive mode we want to do and I I think because this is a phv I’m going to start out in the EV only mode so I’m going to switch out to that I currently show 25 miles remaining on this charge because I’m not quite all
The way to full on the battery but that’s okay I’m going to reset my trip and we’ll see exactly how close we get to that 25 miles that they claim of all electric range it’s been interesting watching Mazda slowly move their vehicles up Market they first started with their
Whole like Cotto redesign and then they started adding more leather more premium accessories digital gauge clusters and then they came out with this cx90 which is of course based on a uh inline 6 with rear wheel drive they went all in on the premium segment however there are a few
Things that are just not quite premium enough here this infotainment as I’ve harped on much it’s just substandard also the just the feel of like the door handles and things like that they just feel lighter and cheaper than what you get in a premium brand specifically than
What you get like in a BMW or a Mercedes now how do does this feel in all EV mode and are we going to jump out of EV mode at all nope that’s all EV and we’re cruising along at 50 okay so unlike the Jeep Vehicles which kind
Of are more of a suggestion when you put them in EV mode this one is definitely sticking in EV mode which I like that is a good thing because when you’re in EV mode you want to be Allin on E EV mode at least is my personal opinion now if
You don’t have a full charge and you know that you want to be in EV mode later you can always run the engine in charge mode and that’ll use the alternator to help recharge the batteries and it’ll just be in kind of a primary gas mode if you’re trying to be
Environmentally sensitive that’s not the way to do it it’s always much less impact on the environment to go off the grid uh even if the grid is not the cleanest of energy sources come on fully VI power I’m wide open oh okay so if I click that throttle
Button down into wide open throttle it will kick in the gas motor however if I go full thr oh wait it already it basically exited EV mode altoe that’s interesting so let’s try this again I’m in EV mode Full Throttle but I’m not clicking that last button yeah so if I
Go Full Throttle but I don’t click the little button that’s at the end of the Thro then it does not engage that gas engine and I think that’s actually okay because this way I have two stages of wide open all electric and then if I
Really need all the power I can get for like an emergency pass then I can click the button and it gives me that maximum horsepower and torque so I am just driving normal I am not doing any like hyper mile driving here and we’re just going to see how
Many miles we can get with this EV only system it’s estimating that I have 22 mil remaining and that I’ve driven 1.8 mil and yeah we fudged a little bit cuz I went into gas mode just for a brief moment there but I think for the overall
Loop that’s not going to affect things that much seating position is pretty good got good visibility all around on the vehicle seat is pretty comfortable I got to give Moz to that I kind of like these there’s also an adjustable lumbar control which is nice the steering wheel
Feels great I like it when manufacturers really focus on what your fingers touch here I’m touching the steering wheel very nice the gear shifter that also is wrapped in leather and metal everything does feel pretty premium here I like that the heads up display it’s not my favorite I think it’s a little
Design-wise it’s a whole bunch of random stuff it doesn’t seem very cohesive uh but I can always turn it off uh there’s a button somewhere oh yeah it’s in this infotainment system I got to scroll to settings I got a scroll to in vehicle displays I got to go to active driving
Display and then from here I can can I turn it off active yep I can turn it off great for most people a plug-in electric hybrid makes the most sense because you can drive all electric every day but then also use the same vehicle for extended road trips it’s just such an
Easy vehicle to drive every day however a lot of people just don’t kind of understand that it’s even really an option or the fact that you can drive the vehicle without using a drop of gas for people who only need to do tons of short trips throughout the week a phev
Is brilliant um that said I think 26 mil is on the short side I would have liked to see a slightly larger battery get me up to 35 get me up to 40 I think that that is a much more usable space ideally for me because I kind of live a little
Bit more remotely I don’t live downtown uh I think a 50 would be almost ideal now of course when I put the brakes on it does add charge back into the vehicle so that’s a good thing uh that is also why you know you get better mileage
Around town uh with these type of vehicles because it helps recharge the system whenever you put the brakes on if you’re just cruising on the highway all you’re fighting against is wind and you get no recharge from that so far driv in EV only mode is actually not bad I the
Vehicle does not feel fast it definitely does not but I feel good knowing that I’m not using any gas that’s great makes lots of little electric noises you can definitely hear them actually there is one thing interesting about this vehicle is it makes so many noises that I can hear audibly it
Definitely has more racket under the hood even in EV modes than other premium Vehicles so again I I kind of have trouble thinking of this as a premium I think of it more as a really nice mainstream vehicle Mazda does include the full Suite of active safety stuff in
This trim level we have Collision mitigation blind spot warning rear cross traffic alerts front traffic alerts and adaptive cruise control I hit it here it changes my whole display which I think is actually kind of cool and away we go off to the races now where most manufacturers are starting to provide
Lane centering the Mazda here yeah no we’re just going to blaze over that lane um it does Lane notifications uh not as helpful for longdistance trips so you know if you really wanted something with Lane centering skip this vehicle alt together it just doesn’t have it although it’s funny to note that even
Something as basic as a Toyota Corolla comes standard with Lane centering Mazda again not really offering the premium stuff if you do choose this you get a vehicle that I think actually looks pretty good although the proportions are a bit off for me it has a nice Panorama sunroof it’s comfortable second row
Captain’s chairs the third row it’s tight but usually those are only used in a pinch anyway uh so I think that overall Mazda actually has a really good offering here yeah I know you’re shocked that I said that after my last cx90 review but uh hey you know what
Powertrains matter price matters options matter also I’m not getting that clunking that I got on that inline 6 transmission all the time this transmission has been pretty much smooth overall so it’s now reporting I have 11 miles remaining on my electric batteries and see so we started at 26 so we’re
Down 20 so we’re down 15 miles and I’ve traveled 12 miles so not quite in Spec there but it’s pretty close also I’ve been doing anything but hypermile here I have been driving this vehicle all week and earlier I did get 31 miles uh with the electric charge so obviously it
Greatly reflects how you’re driving uh but I think it’s it’s right in there and I I have no complaints about the actual range that we’re getting considering what is claimed okay let’s go ahead and switch this over to sport mode so we can feel what full power looks like on it Full Throttle
Woo w W okay that’s not bad yeah if you want to run with the big boys you definitely put this into sport mode and Go full power what that’s cool okay I’m starting to like this vehicle a lot better than I did that uh inline 6 version I love the Dual
Personality of it the fact that it drives very sporty when you’re in sport mode yet if you’re an EV mode it runs conservatively and doesn’t use any fuel that is awesome so we’ve driven it on the highway now it’s time to test out the off-road chops of this cx90 because
Yes it has a trail mode and we’re going to put that to the test here at our Peninsula Proving Grounds we’ve added side to side ditches so we’re going to see how this does in a more challenging course when I was putting in those ditches I actually went a little too far
At first and made it a little too hard for my Ranger Tremor to get through so I backed it up just a little bit and I have not driven through it sent so we’re going to see how well this vehicle can handle our easy course and is our easy
Course easy enough because I mean it’s supposed to test things it’s not supposed to strand them so we’ll see I going to do a quick test here and just see how it’s Distributing Power by doing a Full Throttle launch on a loose surface so let’s see what it does let’s
Start with sport which should give us maximum power to the back now traction control let’s turn that off so that doesn’t get in the way says TCS off I’m in drive I’m going to preload just a little bit and then floor it 3 two 1 and go okay yeah that definitely feels rear
Wheel drive so now let’s try off-road see how that changes things going to preload just a little bit and then go okay and that feels a little bit more balanced not quite so much in the rear and then finally let’s see what EV mode does I’m going to make sure not to
Throttle beyond the first stage of wide open I’m not going to go past that little button so we’re going to go into EV mode there’s no pre-loading cuz it’s electric so I’m just going to basically MH the throttle TCS has stayed off this whole time which is nice okay and three two one
Go H not enough power to really feel Anything I’d say overall yeah definitely a rear bias system I mean technically it is but you never know how they’re going to distribute power on these things interesting that it’s way more rear bias in sport than it is in Offroad which is good that’s what you want now let’s hit the easy
Course so here we are out at our Peninsula Proving Grounds and this is the easy course now I did take the Hyundai Palisade on the same course and it did fine however the log and rock section that’s the same but this entry level we’ve changed it a lot since the
Palisade I’ve added a side to side tilt section that I think is really going to put this system to the test now switching into off-road mode I get a new set of gauges that look kind of tough and uh the engine kicks on because of course you need maximum power so this
First section is a slimy climb now these tires are not all terrains not even close these are all season Falcon zikes it’ll be interesting to see how this does okay we got our camera view on put it into drive that’s basically all we
Can do see how it does so I am a little concerned about the long wheelbase on this thing we might have some issues with clearance because of that also front and rear overhangs are a little on the long side oh oh oh yeah that’s the benefit of
A rear bias system because you have all the power going to the back when you are going up a hill all the weight shifts to the back as well so you have the benefit of all the power being where you need it and we got up just fine okay well now
Let’s try the tilty section by the way I’m trying to come up with a name for this Forest I think a fun Forest would be kind of a good one we’ll run through this and then post your comments below what you think we should call this segment
Now this vehicle has about 8 Ines of ground clearance we are going to lift a wheel here in the back I expect I’m going to crank over here how we doing with power okay oh I can hear that wheel braking shifting power around that’s nice no display though to tell me what
It’s doing I just kind of have to feel it but it’s definitely doing something in the back there even though there are a couple lines I take here I could either go wide or I could go shallow The Wider line is actually the harder of the
Two CU this really going to dip these wheels around now we could of course carry momentum through here but the whole point is to test the all-wheel drive system so what we’re going to do here is basically get over to the section where we’re going to teeter
Totter if it’ll let us o yeah that power’s shifting around we’re spinning this wheel and that wheel but I just leave the throttle in and it slowly moves us forward and now we’re going to teeter tot her over okay got us through that’s great now do we have enough clearance for the
Logs let’s see now we have a little bump as we exit and that’ll basically measure whether or not we’ll be able to get over the logs just a little rubbing I think we’ll be okay let’s give it a try so what we have here is a collection
Of logs that I’ve sunk into sand with a few Boulders scattered around now the biggest issue here is really going to be ground clearance approach breakover departure angles will it grind now the Palisade got through here can the Mazda I don’t know let’s find out G to turn the camera back on uh
Making sure that it’s yep still in off-road mode uh note I still have five miles on my electric side that’s neat okay now I’m going to use the front camera to try to position my wheels now the problem I’m having with this camera system and let me get a shot
Of it right here what we can see here on the camera it’s a little difficult because it’s such a wide angle lens on the front it’s kind of obscuring what I’m going to be driving over also unlike the more Modern Toyota system it doesn’t paint under the vehicle so it’s hard to
Get context of what’s going on so according to the lines I have here I should be able to make it over the logs right here just looking at the lines listen for any grinding just slowly easing over now the crawl ratio on this isn’t great but you
Know given the target market that’s not too surprising I’m just trying to crawl over cuz I don’t want to Funk down and hit something hard don’t want to break front fascia off or anything like that getting through so far okay I think we’re going to get over
It one more log and we are clear it got over it without any scraping so that’s good you’re definitely not going to be driving over anything bigger than that with this and for our final challenge we’re going to exit this really tight Corner try not to hit the tree there’s
Also some holes in the sand here you know this camera system it just doesn’t help it’s so small and so distorted on the edges I just don’t really find it that useful so I’m going to ignore it sure we don’t rub we’re inches from that tree got it ooh drugg the underside
Though on the sand now we go okay so the cx90 phv got through the course with no issues the trail mode is actually really effective it does a good job of adding that wheel breaking and shifting that power pretty seamlessly I would like more information about what the system is doing but on
Trails like this it’ll be just fine and frankly Trails like this are hard as anybody will likely be tackling in a vehicle like this if you’re looking for a three row family crossover that has some Deluxe accommodations it’s really not bad for driving sports TV I’m Ry out
It thanks for watching be sure to like subscribe share videos we make them for you hope you enjoy them I didn’t think this would get through but it did
We give the Mazda CX-90 a second try, this time with the PHEV AWD model. Can it win Ryan over? We check out all the features and then put it to the test at our Peninsula Proving Grounds.
#Mazda #offroad #newcar
CONTENTS
00:00 – Introduction
00:33 – Features
10:39 – Road Driving EV and Sport Modes
21:13 – Drive Mode Slow-Motion Slip Tests
23:21 – Off-Road Test (Fun Forest)
Get a VIP Pass for Driving Sports TV on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4x0_RNxoNkfM8WtRWPoxWw/join
Driving Sports produces exclusive automotive reviews, news and motor sports for broadcast, web, mobile and set-top boxes. Do not use our video content without permission. All rights are reserved.
Equipment used to make this video:
Canon R5: https://amzn.to/2KcwacW
Canon R6: https://amzn.to/33xLpUa
Canon 24-105mm f/4: https://amzn.to/2Jx0I8e
BlackMagic Ursa 4.6k G2: https://amzn.to/37poIm6
Sony RX0II (in-car camera) https://amzn.to/2NCfWbp
Rode Go Wireless mic https://amzn.to/364zLP5
GoPro https://amzn.to/2RrdNjT
Aputure Amaran AL-MW LED https://amzn.to/3lZHbfP
Follow us:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/drivingsports
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/drivingsports
Official Site: http://www.drivingsports.com
