2025
Mazda CX-50 Hybrid

What We Like

Steering feel

If you’ve ever found yourself confused by car reviewers talking about steering as “slow” vs. “quick,” or “responsive” vs. “dull,” we recommend you test-drive a Mazda against any of its direct competitors. The CX-50 Hybrid lives up to our prior praise of other Mazda models—the steering is quick, well-weighted, and crisp, and provides the driver with enough feedback to make them feel like they’re in full control of the vehicle at all times. Yet, it isn’t so darty that it demands the driver constantly make little corrections to stay in a straight line on the highway.

Handling and ride comfort

The CX-50 is fun to drive. It doesn’t lean much into corners, and it helps the driver feel confident when swerving to avoid an obstacle. The suspension is firmer than most other SUVs, but not so stiff as to let bumps uncomfortably punch through into the cabin. We also noted that the Hybrid rides more comfortably than the original CX-50 we tested in 2023. By comparison, we’ve described the RAV4 as “responsive, but not athletic.” If you wish you were driving a sporty sedan or coupe instead of an SUV, get the Mazda.

The hybrid powertrain

We liked Toyota’s 219-horsepower hybrid powertrain when we tested the RAV4 Hybrid, but we enjoyed it even more in the CX-50. Mazda added simulated “shift points” in the e-CVT that not only give the powertrain a sense of urgency but also make the driving experience more natural and satisfying. The CX-50 Hybrid is quick when pulling away from a stop and in around-town driving, although we had to floor the throttle to access the engine’s full power for passing or merging at highway speeds.

Fuel economy

We plan to put a CX-50 Hybrid through our instrumented fuel economy test. In the meantime, we were pleased to see the onboard trip computer showing an average of 35 mpg in city and highway driving. The last RAV4 Hybrid we tested returned 37 mpg overall.

Safety

The CX-50 has already earned the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) Top Safety Pick Plus designation, and every trim level of the Hybrid comes standard with blind spot warning (BSW) and other important active safety features.

What We Don’t Like

The infotainment system

Ever the iconoclast, Mazda has stubbornly clung to dials and knobs in a world of touchscreens. Normally, we’d commend anyone swimming against that tide, and we’re glad that Mazda’s climate control system has easy-to-use physical controls. However, the CX-50’s infotainment system was clearly not designed to be used as a touchscreen. Even with touch control enabled for Android Auto and Apple CarPlay use, the screen is too far away to easily reach. In addition, the system menus (not to mention Android Auto and Apple CarPlay) are just too complex to be controlled through a single, multi-function knob.

The hybrid engine sound

If any of us at CR ever found ourselves blindfolded and stuffed into the trunk of a Toyota Hybrid, we’d be able to tell our rescuers what our captors were driving because its sonic signature is unlike any other car out there. Like a tiger snarling in a large, tiled public restroom, that echoey growl is the one downside of Toyota’s otherwise superb hybrid system. The engine isn’t as loud in the CX-50 as in the Toyota Prius, thanks to soundproofing, but it’s one of the Mazda’s few downsides.

No lane centering

What a weird omission! Most new cars at least offer lane centering assistance (LCA), a feature that keeps a vehicle centered between painted lane lines. It can be helpful to reduce stress on long drives, but it’s not available on any trim of the CX-50 Hybrid.

The piano black trim

Mazda has some good-looking interiors, but the company needs to stop using shiny black trim (designers call it “piano black” because it looks like the glossy finish of a modern grand piano) around the shifter, cupholders, and center console. It attracts fingerprints and gets scratched too easily by jewelry and keys.

What We’ll Keep an Eye On

The value for money

It’s hard to tell whether buying a CX-50 Hybrid will save you money over the gas-only models, or how it competes with similar SUVs. In general, we think the Hybrid competes in the same realm as the pricier CX-50 2.5 Turbo, which has 8 more horsepower but gets worse fuel economy and costs thousands of dollars more than comparable Hybrid models.

However, if you’re only shopping on price and not performance, a CX-50 Hybrid Premium costs $3,400 more than the most similar non-turbo CX-50 2.5 S, which we tested and found underpowered. The Hybrid adds 32 horsepower and gets 10 mpg more than the 2.5 S, but we calculated it would take about 9 years of ownership to make up that difference in fuel savings.

On top of that, the CX-50 lineup is convoluted, with 10 trim levels across three different engine types. There are little differences in trims across engine types—the CX-50 2.5 S Premium has leatherette while the CX-50 Hybrid Premium has real leather trim, for example—so it’s hard to make a direct comparison. To make matters worse, it’s hard to compare trim levels among engine choices on Mazda’s website. We spend our days deciphering spec sheets, and we can’t imagine how hard it would be for an average consumer with a day job to find the right version for them, let alone pick one off a dealership lot.

Depending on trim level, the CX-50 Hybrid’s MSRP is within a few hundred dollars of most of its competitors. But there’s no bare-bones version of the Mazda that competes with the $31,725 base-model RAV4 Hybrid LE, so budget buyers might want to opt for the Toyota.

Interior comfort

“Like a park bench,” or “supportive and well-shaped”? When it comes to the front seats, our test drivers’ opinions were mixed, so we suggest that you pay attention to seat comfort on your test drive. That’s especially true for the rear seat, which is slightly different from the nonhybrid version—they had to put all that hybrid gear somewhere.

Cargo room

Based on SAE measurements provided by manufacturers, the CX-50 lags behind the Honda CR-V Hybrid, Hyundai Tucson Hybrid, and Toyota RAV4 Hybrid for cargo storage. However, our own measurements of usable cargo space show that the CX-50 Hybrid fits more in real-world scenarios. We recommend bringing strollers, bikes, or mobility equipment on a test drive to make sure it fits your needs.

Active Safety and Driver Assistance

Forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection, blind spot warning, rear cross traffic warning, lane departure warning, lane keeping assistance, adaptive cruise control, and automatic high beams all come standard. New for 2025, the CX-50 Turbo Premium Plus adds front cross-traffic warning. Nearly all of our drivers experienced BSW alerts on empty roads with no cars in our blind spot. We don’t yet know if that’s a calibration issue with the specific car we rented or a wider problem with the model. We didn’t see this issue on the nonhybrid CX-50 we tested.