Mazda files a patent for what appears to be the brand’s new electric car. Is it a Mazda 3 combustion engine conversion?

The Park Gate met Mazda’s impressive patent application. It shows a small sedan with a bulge in the floor and no internal combustion engine. Instead, an electric motor drives the front wheels, in typical Mazda fashion. Some media speculated that it was revealed the car may in the future replace the Mazda 3, a compact model sold since 2003.

Mazda prepares competition VW ID.3 and Renault Megane Electric?

The battery drawn in the software is surprisingly thin, as if it was based on pale cells and has no module or active cooling. It looks similar to the 11cm thick Renault Megane Electric battery, arguably the world’s thinnest battery for a mass-produced electric car:

Renault Megane Electric Battery (c) Renault

Illustration from Mazda patent application (c) Mazda, from The Drive

The manufacturer maintains that the battery capacity is sufficient for a suitable range and that it can rely on Li-ion cells as well as those with solid electrolytes. If the company wants to start with the end, then the time of the premiere of the electric sedan has been postponed until at least the middle of the decade. Engine seen from the front can also be placed on the rear or both axles.

If we use the drawing from the patent application to the appearance of the modern Mazda 3, we will see that the cars are very similar to each other, all the proportions are the same, the electric car is distinguished only by a slightly different shape of the back and glass (?) roof. This suggests that an electric version could be created by replacing the diesel platform. This method has its limitations, but Mazda is known for being able to reliably enhance old technologies to achieve new excellence (see, for example: SkyActiv drives).