2025 Mazda CX-70 PHEV: The Perfect Family Crossover!

Watch our YouTube Video of the 2025 Mazda CX-70 PHEV

The 2025 Mazda CX-70 PHEV Preimium Plus AWD in Rhodium White Preimium. A full-size 2-row crossover with the best of both an EV and a Hybrid.Photo byWilliam West Hopper

The Mazda CX-70 is surprisingly big. It's larger than I expected it to be. Both when it comes to the overall exterior and interior spaces. And when I say the cargo space is enormous, it is, and even more with the 2^nd row down. While this vehicle has all-wheel drive, I think of it more as a crossover than an SUV, more like the full-size station wagons of yesteryear. It is not a 3-row crossover but a 2-row with plenty of cargo room, which many people need with today’s lifestyle. If you want the 3-row, that would be the CX-90. While it carries an extra 2- passengers, it is essentially a CX-70, just with a few more bells and whistles.

Interior

Mazda CX-70 Preimium Plus with red nappa leather, offers everything where you want and expect it to be from a driver's perspective.Photo byWilliam West Hopper

Mazda’s interior designers do an excellent job on overall design, finishes, and placing things where they need to be. They call it Kodo design. While it is beautiful to look at, it is also very nice to the touch, something that is lacking in many modern vehicles today. Things feel like cheap, hard plastic. Not Mazda products. Mazda places things where they need to be. They call it Kodo design. While it is beautiful to look at, it is also very nice to the touch, something that is lacking in many modern vehicles today. Many have interiors that feel like cheap, hard plastic. Not Mazda products, their products have a luxurious feel. And that is not just this model.

The second row in the Mazda CX70 offers luxuries like reclining seats, rear outboard heated seats and more.Photo byWilliam West Hopper

Our media tester Mazda CX-70 is very well thought out. With the Premium Plus model that added Nappa leather trimmed seats with the standard 8-way power driver's seat with Lumbar and the front passenger seat both front seats are heated and ventilated. Something you will appreciate in the dead of summer, as we did during our July review of the CX-70. The 12.3 color center display, and the digital dashboard, screens, switches, gauges are all where you expect them to be and within easy reach for the driver, making driving the vehicle easier—no long reaches, no out-of-the-way spots you have to look for or look at. The Mazda CX-70 is very well thought out. Add to that the 2^nd row sunshades on the right and left side windows. And two 1500w AX 3-prong 110v outlets in the way back. Lots of items in the plus column on this Mazda.

Dual 120V 3-prong power outlets on both the right and left side of the cargo bay of the Mazda CX-70.Photo byWilliam West Hopper

Powertrain

The Mazda CX-70 Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle comes with standard i-Activ AWD®. While this is a review of the PHEV, the CX-70 Turbo and Turbo S models provide smooth, responsive performance and efficiency to mild hybrid powertrains. The CX-70 3.3-liter Inline 6-cylinder Turbo engine produces up to 340 hp and 369 lb.-ft of torque, delivering acceleration and performance you can feel. This provides the best of both worlds, EV for around town and gasoline power for longer trips, with the benefit of excellent fuel mileage.

The 323 Horsepower E-Skyactive PHEV engine in the 2025 Mazda CX-70 PHEV.Photo byWilliam West Hopper

The CX-70 Mild Hybrid powertrain adds a small electric motor to reduce the You have two options with this vehicle: a Plug in and a Non-Plug-In Hybrid The CX-70 Mild Hybrid powertrain adds a small electric motor to reduce the. This vehicle has two options: a Plug-in and a Non-Plug-In Hybrid. The hybrid premium fueled gasoline engine provides optimized fuel efficiency. The PHEV or Plug-In provides a stated 26 full EV miles, though we saw about 30 miles in our week of testing. Though, do not expect jackrabbit Electric Vehicle starts or the sheer power you would from a regular EV when in EV mode. Maybe it’s due to its size and weight, but I found it to be a tad pokey when you expected immediate EV power.

Mazda CX-70 PHEV offers 30 miles of all electric power, and the fuel economy benefits of the hybrid engine.Photo byWilliam West Hopper

This i-Activ AWD is a rear-biased all-wheel-drive drivetrain, available whether electric or hybrid power is used. Standard All-wheel drive is great as road conditions change due to weather or terrain, delivering power to the right wheels at the right time. Mazda’s Intelligent Drive Select (Mi-Drive), available Towing Mode, helps optimize towing up to 5,000 lbs. The available Trailer Hitch View makes connecting your CX-70 to a trailer easier.⁶

Safety and Tech

Mazda’s i-Activsense ® Safety Technology provides more than adaptive Cruise Control—it is active and watching all the time, so this is perfect for the driver who is often distracted. Intelligent front braking, road keep assistance, traffic avoidance assistance, and vehicle exit warning are just a few of the onboard technologies in the CX-70.

The Mazda CX-70 has a J1772 port for recharging at many local free EV chargers.Photo byWilliam West Hopper

Today’s cameras and various standard safety features, which one could not even imagine back in the day of the station wagon, are part of this CX-70. Lane departure warning, blind spot assist, and others make you feel safe driving this crossover.

The Mazda CX-70 offers both EV and hybrid operation, with its J1772 plug that has its own space under the cargo area.Photo byWilliam West Hopper

Price Point

Premium Plus—At $57.450, you get a two-row crossover with seating for five, napa leather-trimmed front seats, front ventilated and heated seats, and a 360-degree view monitor with a see-through view and trailer hitch view. Lots more than you might expect at this price point.

While the Mazda CX-70 has plenty of cargo space, since it is only 2-row crossover. With the 2nd row folded down, it has even more space.Photo byWilliam West Hopper

While our top-of-the-line CX 70 Premium Plus costs under $60K, lower trim levels have lower price points. For example, you can get a Mazda CX 70 Premium for $54,400, which has a smaller 2.5-liter 4-cylinder engine with a 68kW electric motor and 323 horsepower. This Premium Plus model has all the bells and whistles most American families want in a vehicle today.

Complaints

The tinny sound as you open and close the door. Mazda can do better with some sound-deadening material in the doors. EV functionality – I expected a bit more punch when I floored it in all EV mode, but no, it is pokey and just goes about it, not turtle-like, but sure not jack rabbit-like, which is what you experience in a full EV. And while you can’t help this, the size of this vehicle is large. After recently driving a humongous Chevy Suburban, while a smaller vehicle, it seemed larger and more cumbersome than that extra full-size SUV. Speaking of size – this vehicle is more like a 3-row vehicle due to the battery packs under where that third row would be, which is why it is not. Take the hybrid out, and you would have room for a 3rd row. Interestingly enough, there is accommodation back there for that, with storage areas on the side wall.^rd If you want the 3rd-row, there is the CX90.

The cargo bay of the Mazda CX70 is enormous, even more with the 2nd row down.Photo byWilliam West Hopper

The Mazda CX-70 is not a small vehicle. It reminds me of the Station Wagons of my youth, just with a bit of SUV flair and standard all-wheel drive. This Mazda is great for cargo carrying—or room for the dog in the back—and is a great family vehicle. I found it interesting that it did not have a grab bar on the front passenger A-Pillar, which would have been helpful when an elderly passenger was trying to get into the vehicle. It is not really high off the ground, but that person did need something to grab onto to get into the vehicle.

Mazda CX70 has a doughnut spare tire hidden deep under the cargo floor in the rear.Photo byWilliam West Hopper

Mazda celebrates its Japanese heritage—unlike Toyota, Subaru, or Nissan, which may make you think they may be more all-American or of international heritage. Mazda does not wait to change its vehicles at model change time, which is good to consider if you are considering a pre-owned one. They incorporate good ideas along the way, mid-cycle, sometimes within a single model year.

2nd-row passengers in the Mazda CX70 have total control over their HVAC, a real luxury feature in an under $60K crossover.Photo byWilliam West Hopper

Overall Thoughts

I found a few flaws in the CX-70, but I can ignore the little things at a price of under $60k in today’s world for a top-of-the-line crossover. After all, it drives well, holds the road well, gets great fuel mileage, and, being a PHEV, offers the best of both an EV for around town and a hybrid for those longer road trips.

Lots of storage underneath the cargo area in the Mazda CX-70.Photo byWilliam West Hopper

If you go antiquing, shop at the big box store, or carry dogs with you, the CX-70 is a great vehicle for all of that. Plus, it has a great look—classically elegant with a style that will not be obsolete in a few years. If you are looking for a road trip vehicle that is a 2-row Crossover with all-wheel drive, the Mazda CX-70 is a strong contender Mazda CX-70 for your family.

Check out the Real DCCarGuy review video of this 2025 Mazda CX-70 on YouTube.Photo byWilliam West Hopper