A brand new Mazda five-seat premium crossover called the CX-60 is locked in for an Australian-market launch before the end of 2022, the company announced today.
The CX-60 will be sourced from Japan and will be sold alongside a facelifted CX-5 in Australia.
It will also offer new engines: potentially including a plug-in hybrid four, and both petrol and diesel inline-sixes with 48V electrical systems. Whether we’ll get all of them remains to be seen.
As we saw with the smaller CX-30 model (as compared to the CX-3), expect the CX-60 to be a more upmarket proposition and push towards Genesis and Lexus.
Somewhat confusingly, another new Mazda model called CX-50 has also been confirmed today, but this will a US-only proposition built in Alabama at a new joint-venture plant with Toyota.
Make sense?
This means that by the end of 2022 we expect Mazda Australia’s SUV portfolio to include CX-3, CX-30, CX-5, CX-60, CX-8, and CX-9, as well as the niche MX-30.
There’s every chance the rollout won’t stop there, with the company confirming an additional trio of SUVs today called CX-70, CX-80, and CX-90 – all to be revealed and on roads by 2023.
While details are scarce on this latter trio, it appears that the CX-80 is a three-seat-row stretched version of the CX-60, while the CX-70 and CX-90 models are wider-body versions.
The even-numbered pair are targeted at Europe and Japan, the odd-numbered duo are focused on markets such as the US where bigger and wider cars do better.
Mazda did tell CarExpert today that the CX-60/CX-70/CX-80/CX-90 were all available to us, and that it was simply deciding which ones it could make a case for.
The 70, 80 and 90 models will all use the same drivetrain choices as the CX-60.
Speculation would suggest that a CX-60 can slot into the existing range, but if any of the other bigger trio come here, it’d surely mean some degree of rationalisation in regards to CX-8/CX-9.
