Image: Mazda
New ModelsBy: Ian McLaren
The new 7-seater model will place above the recently introduced CX-60 in Mazda Southern Africa’s revamped product portfolio.
Image: Mazda
Confirmed during an interview with this publication ahead of a new “What’s Up?” print feature (that each month will “touch base” with a South African automotive brand), MD of Mazda South Africa, Craig Roberts, says the brand will aim to introduce the CX-80 in the first quarter of 2024.
Sharing the brand’s Large Architecture platform with the CX-60, expect the new 7-seater model to feature both a stretched profile compared with the 60 (which is already 4 740 mm in length), as well as a longer wheelbase than the 2 870 mm available in most recently launched Mazda SUV. Interestingly, an even larger CX-90 model is currently available in the US market.
Also confirmed by Roberts is that South Africa is no longer “off the radar” when it comes to the availability of Mazda’s newest 3,3-litre, inline six-cylinder turbodiesel powertrain. That said, while our market now must wait its turn for allocation of this 187 kW/500 N.m engine option, expect it to feature once the CX-80 arrives here. Another exciting drivetrain that this Japanese brand will look to introduce in both the CX-60 (within the second quarter of 2024) and CX-80 is a plug-in hybrid setup.
With already a clear mandate in terms of maintaining the look and feel of its newest products across its broad portfolio, expect the CX-80 to offer suitably enlarger exterior styling to mimic what we’ve already seen in the CX-60 – as well as the forthcoming new CX-5, that is scheduled to begin production by the end of 2025.
Keyword: Mazda CX-80 Confirmed for South African Introduction in Early 2024