2025 Mazda CX-70 PHEV

From the outside, you’re going to be hard-pressed to tell the two-row CX-70 from the three-row CX-90, but there are a few differences. First, there’s no chrome trim; exterior trim pieces have shiny painted black or matte anthracite gray finishes. The CX-70’s front bumper design is also different from the CX-90’s, with two hexagonal elements flanking the lower air dam instead of the CX-90’s slimmer inlets. There are different wheel designs and the badge on the liftgate, and that’s it — same sheet metal, same glass, same design.

Same powertrains, too: a turbocharged straight-six-cylinder gas engine with 48-volt mild-hybrid technology or a plug-in hybrid system with a four-cylinder gas engine. The base turbocharged 3.3-liter straight-six makes 280 horsepower and is available for 3.3 Turbo Preferred, Premium and Premium Plus trims, while a 340-hp version of the engine goes in 3.3 Turbo S Premium and S Premium Plus variants. The PHEV combines a 2.5-liter four-cylinder with a 68-kilowatt electric motor for 323 hp system total and is available only in PHEV Premium and Premium Plus trims. All-wheel drive is standard on all versions.

Just like the outside, the inside of the CX-70 is akin to the 90 — and it is truly lovely, perhaps the CX-70’s best attribute. With beautiful shapes and immaculate construction, it feels like a premium product (and it had better given its price; more on that in a moment). The Mazda family feel comes through well in the cabin, with the traditional gauge faces (now done in digital format) in front of you, and Mazda’s decidedly quirky idea of how a multimedia system should work on display in the center dashboard screen.

The Mazda multimedia system has menu-based operation that can only be controlled by a rotary knob and surrounding buttons on the center console, right where a front-seat passenger would rest their hand — unless you have Apple CarPlay or Android Auto running (wireless connectivity for them is standard), in which case the display magically becomes a touchscreen. While the interior overall might be the best attribute of the CX-70, that multimedia system is undoubtedly the worst; it’s tricky to use and its user interface is more of a distraction than the safety measure Mazda intended. It almost encourages you to instead use Apple CarPlay or Android Auto just so you have the touchscreen abilities of the system instead of having to use the rotary controller. It’s 2024; you’d think the debate over what works and what doesn’t for an effective multimedia system would be over by now, but clearly Mazda hasn’t gotten the message.

If you can forget about the silly multimedia system for a moment, the CX-70 rewards you with an outstanding driving experience. Few companies do driving dynamics like Mazda, with a potent combination of responsive powertrains, attention to body control and communicative steering that makes the CX-70 much more engaging and entertaining to drive than nearly any competitor. Acceleration is brisk when you call for it, with the PHEV system switching fairly seamlessly between electric and gasoline operation. 

Pricing Weirdness
Here’s where things get odd. Trim level to trim level, Mazda has priced the two-row 2025 CX-70 identically to the three-row 2024 CX-90, though the CX-90 has a lower starting price because it comes in a base Select trim not offered for the CX-70. The cheapest CX-70 is $41,900 (all prices include $1,455 destination fee) for a 3.3 Turbo Preferred trim, but the cheapest three-row CX-90 is $39,300 for a 3.3 Turbo Select trim. A CX-90 in Turbo Preferred trim is also $41,900. It’s the same situation with the plug-in versions: The CX-70 starts at the PHEV Premium trim level for $55,855, which is what the CX-90 PHEV Premium costs, but you can get a CX-90 in PHEV Preferred trim for $51,400.

So, the CX-90 offers a cheaper budget version that has more seats but less content for less money, while the CX-70 has a higher starting trim and price but fewer seats. Nearly everything else is identical between the two models. The logic of the marketing plan here escapes us, but it does offer buyers a choice.