BMW is months away from kicking off deliveries of the new iX3 to European customers. Order books are already thick enough to cover nearly the entire production run allocated to the continent for this year. As you can imagine, the competition isn’t sitting idle, eager to grab a slice of the action. Case in point: Mazda, which has the Neue Klasse SUV squarely in its crosshairs with the CX-6e.
Introduced this week at the 2026 Brussels Motor Show, the attractive EV hails from China. Developed and built in the world’s largest car market, the Mazda CX-6e aims to lure buyers away from the iX3. It should win over some with its sleek design, while the smartphone-loving crowd will appreciate the massive 26-inch touchscreen.
The initial version won’t compete directly with the iX3, though. While BMW’s all-new electric SUV features a dual-motor, all-wheel-drive setup, the CX-6e sticks to a single-motor, rear-wheel-drive layout. That said, the iX3 50 xDrive will be joined before year’s end in Europe by a rear-wheel-drive variant, which will go head-to-head with Mazda’s new electric crossover.
The CX-6e is essentially a European version of the EZ-60, packing 255 horsepower and 290 Newton-meters (214 pound-feet) of torque. The rear-mounted motor enables a sprint to 62 mph (100 km/h) in 7.9 seconds and a top speed of 115 mph (185 km/h). These figures fall short of what the BMW iX3 can deliver, but that’s hardly a fair comparison given the Mazda’s lack of a front motor.
Its lithium-iron phosphate battery has a 78-kWh capacity, providing 300 miles (483 kilometers) of WLTP range. Mazda claims the new electric SUV charges at 195 kW, less than half of the iX3’s 400-kW peak charging rate. Still, a 10% to 80% top-up takes 24 minutes, which is perfectly respectable by today’s standards.
It’s also worth noting that Mazda sells this vehicle in China with a range-extending gasoline engine. It’s a technology BMW used many years ago for the i3 and could revive later this decade with the next-generation X5. For now, Mazda hasn’t said whether the range-extender will be offered in Europe, where the technology is expected to gain traction in the coming years.
A product of the Changan Mazda joint venture and based on the Deepal S07, the CX-6e goes on sale in Europe this summer. It will sit alongside the equally handsome 6e, essentially a sedan counterpart that will compete with BMW’s forthcoming i3.
