The new 7-seater model will place above the recently introduced CX-60 in Mazda Southern Africa’s revamped product portfolio.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
