2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid Review: This Isn’t Fun Anymore

I’m a big fan of the normal Mazda CX-50. It’s a driver’s crossover, a small SUV for customers who previously drove sports cars but now need a bit more space. However, it lacks the mainstream audience of its competitors, like the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4, as its cabin technology and fuel economy—two of crossover customers’ highest priorities—are lagging behind.

So when Mazda announced that it’d be building a CX-50 that keeps everything we love about the way it drives but replaces its small four-cylinder engines with a hybrid powertrain, I was optimistic. The same great sporty chassis, suspension, and steering but with electrified driving and better fuel economy—what’s not to love? 

Unfortunately, the 2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid is a car that works a lot better on paper than on the road. While most of it is every bit as good as its rivals, its Toyota RAV4-sourced hybrid powertrain ends up robbing the CX-50 of its natural charms and ends up feeling confused, as if it doesn’t know what it wants to be. 

So who is this car for? It isn’t a cutting-edge techy hybrid crossover, as it packs a traditional hybrid powertrain and its cabin tech feels two generations old. It isn’t a sporty crossover anymore, either, because that powertrain saps much of its fun. So it ends up becoming a ‘tweener that doesn’t seem to excel in either regard and it feels more like something Mazda is forced to make, rather than something it wants to make. 

The Basics

Mazda chose to eschew developing its own hybrid powertrain for the CX-50 Hybrid and instead borrowed hardware from the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid. It’s part of the joint partnership between both brands, as the CX-50 is built alongside other Toyotas—including the Corolla Cross Hybrid—at the same plant in Alabama. Otherwise, the CX-50 Hybrid is almost identical to the standard car. The only visual differences between the normal CX-50 and the Hybrid are the badges and the gauge cluster, as the tachometer has been replaced with a battery charge and power gauge. 

If you don’t spot the “Hybrid” badges, you’ll never be able to tell the difference between it and the normal CX-50 but that’s a good thing, Since its debut, it’s been one of the best-looking crossovers in its segment, with a low, muscular look that makes it seem far sportier than it needs to. All of its signature design cues, like the boxed wheel arches, low ride height, slender windows, and black body cladding are there, so it’s as good-looking as ever. There are new wheels but they still look similar to every other CX-50 wheel.

The same goes for the interior. Mazda changed almost nothing for Hybrid duty, which means its sporty, driver-focused cabin remains. However, that’s both good and bad. The good is that it’s a well-built, ergonomic interior that fits like a glove if you’re used to driver’s cars. The bad thing is that the infotainment system still feels ancient, which can be disappointing when you’re spending the same new-car money as competitors with much better technology.

The tach is, as mentioned earlier, replaced with hybrid-specific gauges, but its information is pretty basic, as it only tells you when it’s using battery power and when it’s charging the battery. No detailed powerflow diagrams like you get in both the RAV4 and CR-V Hybrids. So if you’re one of those people who likes to nerd out about hybrid vehicle technology and its inner workings, the CX-50 Hybrid might disappoint. 

Driving the Mazda CX-50 Hybrid

Speaking of hybrid technology, the RAV4’s powertrain is the star of the show, for better or worse. It’s a 2.5-liter Atkinson cycle, naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine paired with three AC motors—two helping the engine and one powering the rear axle. Its combined system output of 219 horsepower and 163 lb-ft of torque makes it the weakest CX-50 entry yet and it feels that way. It feels gutless regardless of speed or throttle input and its droning continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT) doesn’t help.

I never expected the CX-50 Hybrid to feel sports car quick or anything but its powertrain is so dull, so coarse, and so unenjoyable to use that it genuinely bummed me out with every drive. The upside is that it gets excellent mileage, as I averaged around 37 mpg during my few days with it, just one mpg shy of Mazda’s claim. 

Few crossovers on sale are as agile as the normal CX-50 and even fewer have such good steering and balance. Presented with corners, the plucky Mazda feels like a sports car that forgot it’s actually an SUV. And when you’re snaking it through a twisty road, the Hybrid version is no different. The problem is that when you put stomp the go-pedal to take advantage of the agility and have some real fun, it falls completely flat. Having the moves of Saquon Barkley is useless if it’s coupled with the speed of Refrigerator Perry. 

It isn’t all bad, though. Mazda brought its typical suspension genius to the Hybrid model, too, so it rides just as beautifully as its gas-only siblings. Its brakes are great, with a nice pedal feel that bites right at the top, and its sightlines are good, so its easy to point its big nose wherever you want. If you like the way the normal CX-50 drives, you’ll like the Hybrid, too. Until you put your right foot down.

The Highs and Lows

If you genuinely enjoy driving, there are few crossovers on the planet that provide the same steering feel, suspension tuning, and overall handling balance that the CX-50 does. You can tell you’re behind the wheel of something designed by the same company that makes the MX-5. But I also really like its main gauges, as they’re simple and easy to read, even if they are a bit low-tech compared to the rest of the industry. The hybrid gauge is for the birds but the normal gauges are great. The seats are also pleasant and provide a great balance between lateral support and long-distance comfort. But the same can be said for the gas CX-50 as well.

Hybrid annoyances aside, the CX-50 isn’t a perfect car. The infotainment screen is painfully low-tech at this point. And while standard wireless Apple CarPlay is nice, it’s frustrating to use with Mazda’s rotary scroll wheel. Don’t get me wrong, I miss the rotary wheels of old BMW and Audi infotainments but those systems were designed around that wheel. Apple CarPlay isn’t, so it’s just annoying to use in the CX-50. 

Mazda CX-50 Hybrid Features, Options, and Competition

One of the few benefits of the Hybrid model is that it comes with all-wheel drive as standard. Interestingly, while only two colors are included in the standard price, they’re not what I expected. White and black are often the two standard color culprits but, for the CX-50 Hybrid, they’re blue and black, which I feel like is the result of some renegade Mazda product planner winning An Argument with their boss. 

The test car in question was a fully loaded Premium Plus model, which is nearly $7,000 more expensive to start. However, it came with such goodies as a panoramic sunroof, 19-inch wheels, a decent-sounding 12-speaker Bose audio system, heated leather seats, a heated steering wheel, and a partridge in a pear tree. While the as-tested price of $41,920 seems high considering the CX-50 Hybrid’s power and performance, there wasn’t much else I could have wanted.

The Toyota RAV4 Hybrid is the obvious matchup since they share the same powertrain and similar price tags. However, there’s also the plug-in RAV4 Prime, which is over $44,000 to start so it’s slightly too expensive, but it also comes with a much superior, very potent plug-in hybrid powertrain. Honda’s fantastic CR-V Hybrid is likely the one to beat. Despite only boasting 204 hp on the spec sheet, that car’s funky two-motor system doesn’t feel slow. It’s no Mazda in the corners but makes up for it with a better powertrain and more up-to-date tech.

The Hyundai Tucson is also a car that exists, in case you forgot.

Fuel Economy

Isn’t that the whole point? Economy? The Mazda CX-50 isn’t meant for straight-line speed or canyon carving (even if its chassis is more than capable). Instead, it’s meant to sip fuel. There aren’t official fuel economy figures for the CX-50 Hybrid just yet but my observed 37 mpg was great. For the hypermilers, the CX-50 Hybrid doesn’t disappoint. Mazda claims that it gets 39 mpg city, 37 mpg highway, and 38 mpg combined. So my findings were about spot-on with Mazda’s.

Those figures also land itself right inside the ballpark of its competitors, namely hybrid versions of the Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4, Hyundai Tucson, and Ford Escape.

Value and Verdict

I don’t see the 2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid as particularly good value even though it’s only $3,630 more than the standard car to start. While it’s far more efficient than the standard CX-50, there are other hybrid crossovers for similar money with better efficiency and tech. If you’re looking for a hybrid powertrain, there are better options, one of which has the same powertrain. 

I get that some customers might want to have the best of both world’s. They might want the CX-50’s dance moves, combined with the efficiency of a hybrid system. However, the hybrid system robs too much of the CX-50’s charms to make it a worthwhile compromise. 

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