The CX-90 looks very similar, at least from the A-pillars forward. The nose is long, with the front wheels pushed far ahead of the cowl. This of course is to make room for the longitudinally mounted engines. The front is a bit blunt, again, possibly as a result of adapting Mazda's design language to a much different front-end layout. From the A-pillars back, it's very clear that there's more length, but it balances out the nose nicely. The side window treatment is different from its smaller sibling, too, with the window sill staying straight instead of sweeping up at the back.
Transcript- That is the all-new 2024 Mazda CX-90, and it really is all new. So here are the nine most new things about it.
Number one. So apart from the Miata and the RX-8, every Mazda has been on a front-wheel drive platform for basically 30 years now. But the CX-90? It's a new rear-wheel drive platform. Despite this, all of them are going to have all-wheel drive as standard.
Number two. Now, with the new platform comes new powertrains, and they're both electrified. This one, as the fender says, is an inline 6, 3.3 liters, produces 340 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque.
Now, it is a mild hybrid, which means that there's an electric motor sandwiched in between the engine and the transmission that adds a little bit of electricity to smooth out acceleration and at slow speeds will actually be able to propel the vehicle by itself. Now, Mazda doesn't have exact fuel economy specs but did say that this gets better fuel economy than the CX-9 that got 23 miles per gallon combined. And this makes 90 more horsepower.
Number three. There's also, as the plug would indicate, a plug-in hybrid. Now, this uses Mazda's familiar 2.5-liter inline 4 plus an electric motor and a 17.8 kilowatt-hour battery that does provide for electric range.
How much electric range? Well, Mazda does not have that exact spec at this moment and has to deal with the EPA, yada, yada, yada. It would say that it will be consistent with other vehicles in the segment.
However, three-row crossover plug-in hybrids, I don't know what that would be. But if you were to guess, I would say it would be between 20 and 35 miles. That's quite the range. But at this point, it's all I got.
Number four. So Mazda has used six-speed automatic transmissions for basically ever at this point, increasingly to their detriment as competitors have 8, 9, 10-speed automatics or CVTs. But let's just put those aside for the moment. Nope, this is all new.
Exactly what it is and how it should be described? Well, Mazda isn't entirely sharing that as yet, but this is what I know. It has eight speeds.
It does not have a torque converter. It does have a multi-plate wet clutch. The electric motor is integrated within it. It is not, they are saying, a dual-clutch automated manual, however.
So that's what it is and what it isn't. And the rest? Well, stay tuned.
Number five. Compared to the CX-9, the CX-90 is bigger. It's longer. It's wider.
With that rear-biased new platform, you can see that there's a lot shorter front overhang. But you can also see over there how much space there is up in the greenhouse compared to the more raked roofline of the old CX-90. The size difference can most be seen here in the third row.
Now, legroom still isn't that great. The seat is pushed all the way back. And because of the rear-drive platform and the battery, the floor is pretty close to the seat bottom.
But headroom is very good. It is much better than the very squished CX-9 and very good for the segment in general. Now, this particular version is the seven-passenger. So you have three seat belts across.
You can also get a six-passenger version, which gets rid of the middle seat belt for some reason. I don't know why you would want to do that. But then this has the two captain's chairs. This can be a bench, which would make it an eight-passenger. So you can have six, seven, or eight-passenger versions, which is a distinctive feature for three-row crossovers.
Number six. Now, the Interior design is consistent with the new CX-50. Especially you can see here with this pleather on the dash with the orange-hued stitching.
Now this is the upper-trim level, which has this lovely, open-pore wood trim. Kind of looks like French Oak. And then it has fabric on the doors instead of pleather as well as on the dash. And then it uniquely has this hanging stitching, which is inspired by hand bookbinding and Japanese traditional weaving techniques. So, in terms of a more luxurious interior and a clear upgrade from the CX-9, well, this is definitely it.
Number seven. So this all-digital instrument panel, it's new. And then so is this 12.3-inch display. Now, the user interface is the same as what you get in the 50, meaning it's mostly controlled with this knob, with the exception of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, which can be controlled using touch capability. Nothing else in the system can be.
Number eight. So this is a new design direction for Mazda. The CX-50, the old CX-9, they were sleek. They were athletic.
This looks like that athlete got, well, old and a little flabby. The front kind of looks like it has jowls. And the butt got kind of big.
Number nine. And, finally, one of the newest developments is the fact that the CX-90 is the new Mazda flagship vehicle and, technically, the replacement for the CX-9, which is being discontinued. But as Mazda would point out, besides the different name, this is a considerably different vehicle.
It is bigger. It is more powerful. It is electrified. And it is a more premium vehicle. It sort of bridges the gap between the family three-row crossover space that the CX-9 was in to the full-fledged luxury models like the Volvo XC90, Lincoln Aviator, Acura MDX. It's sort of now luxury-adjacent.
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