Mazda 6e Real-World Test: I Pulled Into a Fast Charger Almost Empty, and the Charging Curve Surprised Me
I took the Mazda 6e electric sedan with the 68.8 kWh LFP battery on a two-lane highway round trip in eastern Romania: efficiency read off the dashboard, CTS driver assistance, the head-up display, the range map in the navigation and a DC fast-charging session that started at 5%.
A lot of people look at the Mazda 6e for its design: a long, low sedan with coupe-like lines and a cabin that looks more expensive than it is. I wanted to find out something else: how it does on a real trip, how much energy it uses and, above all, how fast the smaller-battery version charges. So I picked the car up early in the morning with just 29% charge, drove it on a two-lane national road to the town of Vaslui, rolled into the charger nearly empty and kept my eyes on the screen for the whole session. Every figure below is something I read off the dashboard or the car's screen, on camera, for my Mașina Timpului YouTube channel.
The car: Mazda 6e with the 68.8 kWh LFP battery
The Mazda 6e is the European version of the EZ-6 sedan, developed with Mazda's Chinese partner Changan, according to the official "Mazda Newsroom" release. It is 4,921 mm long with a 2,895 mm wheelbase, so it's a big car, something I noticed when I squeezed it into the charging bay.
My test car had the 68.8 kWh battery with LFP (lithium iron phosphate) chemistry. According to the official price lists from "Mazda Romania" and "Mazda Germany", this version has a single rear motor rated at 190 kW (258 PS) and 320 Nm, does 0–100 km/h (0–62 mph) in 7.6 seconds and tops out at 175 km/h (109 mph). The combined WLTP range is 479 km (about 298 miles), with an official combined consumption of 16.6 kWh/100 km. It runs on a 400-volt architecture, DC fast charging is rated at up to 165 kW, and the onboard AC charger is 11 kW. For 10–80%, "Mazda Germany" quotes about 24 minutes, while the "Mazda Romania" list says 22 minutes, both under ideal conditions.
On the road: comfortable, quiet and with regen you can tune
The car has three drive modes, and in Individual mode you choose how strong the regenerative braking is. At the maximum setting it slows the car quite firmly. It took me a while to get used to it, so I switched to a gentler setting and, on the downhill stretches, used the trick from my Mercedes EQE SUV test: regen almost off, let the car coast and anticipate traffic as much as possible.
The suspension really impressed me. On the road from my house into town, which I drive every day and where I've tested lots of cars, the Mazda 6e soaked everything up very comfortably, and at city speeds the cabin is very quiet. Adaptive cruise control is set from the gear-selector stalk. There's also CTS (Cruising & Traffic Support), which keeps the distance and helps keep the car in its lane. The head-up display shows a small steering wheel icon that turns green when the car is holding the lane itself. On our tight, twisty roads I preferred to steer myself, but on the highway the system makes sense.
The navigation has a really handy feature: it draws the area you can still reach with your current charge on the map. It also has a nearby-chargers filter by power level, from 22 kW all the way up to 300 kW. The range estimate on the dashboard can be set to "dynamic", meaning it's based on your own driving style rather than a standard test cycle. I like that, because on long trips I rely on what the car tells me.
Efficiency on a two-lane highway
I reset the trip meter when I set off. Here's what the dashboard showed:
- after the first 15 km (9 miles): 14.3 kWh/100 km, with 25% battery and 89 km of "dynamic" range left;
- at 70 km (43 miles), close to the charger: 14.9 kWh/100 km, with 14°C (57°F) outside and after the car had pre-warmed the cabin and battery that morning;
- on the way back home, the average settled at around 15 kWh/100 km, and the average for the whole round trip was also roughly 15 kWh/100 km (about 4.1 miles per kWh).
Those numbers are below the official WLTP combined figure, for a sedan that's nearly five meters long. Near the end, below 10%, the car limited power and showed warnings that the battery needed charging, exactly as you'd expect.
DC fast charging: close to full power all the way to 60%
I arrived at a 180 kW charger with 5% battery. I didn't find a manual battery preconditioning button, only scheduled battery warming before departure, and I don't think the car warmed the battery on the way, possibly also because the navigation didn't route me exactly to the charger. Charging started at 60 kW and climbed to about 100 kW. Going from 5 to 10% took about two minutes, and then the power rose quickly: 135, 140, then 145–157 kW.
That's when the surprise came. At 24% the car was already pulling 167 kW, and at 47%, 50%, 57% and even 60% the screen still showed 168–169 kW. At 58% I caught 400 A, 423 V and 168.9 kW on the screen, a touch above the 165 kW on the spec sheet. Only from around 64% did the power start to drop: 126 kW at 66% and 122 kW at 70%. For a 400-volt car with an LFP battery, I think that's excellent. I unplugged at 73%, when the car estimated 283 km (176 miles) of range based on my driving style.
What else won me over inside
Honestly, the materials are in another league. My car had leather and suede seats, a combination that the "Mazda Romania" list shows on the Takumi Plus trim. The climate control has air purification and shows the air quality, and the car released a subtle fragrance into the cabin that reminded me of the scent in upscale clothing stores. Android Auto runs wirelessly and fills the whole big screen, and the wireless phone charger is cooled (up to 50 W, according to the official list). Acceleration felt linear and right for 258 PS. It won't pin you to your seat, but it doesn't leave you short when overtaking either. And with proper tires, rear-wheel drive should cope well in winter too.
On price, the official "Mazda Romania" list starts at €43,490 including VAT for the Takumi with the 68.8 kWh battery, and at €45,440 for the Takumi Plus. For its SUV sibling, see our Mazda CX-6e first drive.
What it means for drivers
The smaller-battery Mazda 6e doesn't have the longest range in its class, but that matters less than you might think. On two-lane roads in the fall, I stayed consistently around 15 kWh/100 km. The charging stayed close to peak power until about 60%, so a short stop at a good fast charger adds a lot of range. My advice: don't arrive at the charger below 10%. Arrive with 10–20% and a warm battery, so you get the high power right away instead of after a few minutes. In practice you can drive comfortably for a few hours, say three, take a short break and carry on. If you want a comfortable, quiet, beautifully finished electric sedan that charges fast, the Mazda 6e deserves a serious test drive. My next step would be a highway test with the family and luggage to find its limits.
