The successor to the current-gen Mazda3 might become a fully electric vehicle, as the latest patent shots reveal. The company has apparently been developing such a version for a while now, but has not announced it yet. The text accompanying the images mentions an innovative slim battery tech, which could be implemented as lithium-ion or solid state, the latter still a new thing for the car industry. The capacity is described as ‘sufficient’.
In its most basic form, the car will be
driven by a single motor mounted on the front axle. The schematics reveal that
there is enough space in the back for another motor, so AWD can be added to the
lineup later. As for when the alleged electric Mazda3 will appear, the second
half of the decade looks promising. The important thing to note is that patent
filings often do not mean that a new car is coming. Companies often register
novel and unusual designs just to hold the rights to them, and often end up
never actually using them.
As of right now, Mazda only has one
full-fledged electric car on the market right now, the MX-30. The most recent
release – the CX-60 – is a plug-in hybrid.
