How Mazda is making its EV right for Oz

The Mazda 6e is a while away from launching in Australia, despite the brand having already made a production-spec car available for test drives.

The 2026 Mazda 6e electric car will launch here in the second quarter of 2026, and although it’s based on the Deepal L07 from China, it’s been redesigned and tuned to suit European driving tastes.

Read More About Mazda 6E

• Do we need more incentives to drive EVs?
• Mazda 6e 2026 review: Australian preview drive
• Mazda: More to worry about than new brands

Mazda Australia Managing Director Vinesh Bhindi told CarsGuide that Mazda will continue to fine-tune its cars to suit local tastes, even though Mazda Europe has already put in plenty of work.

In Europe, the main changes included adding weight in the steering, finding a stiffer, more controlled ride setting, and dulling-down the driver assist systems and warnings.

Bhindi explains the car that was tested by media “is a production car, an early production car for the European market”.

“We have a couple of other evaluation vehicles running around Sydney, Melbourne, and even up to Brisbane, doing a lot of local testing and local knowledge of what tuning and changes we need to dial in.”

Generally, Chinese models have been seen as having too-soft suspension and a reliance on driver assist systems, something Australians and Europeans aren’t used to.

While road surfaces are sometimes vastly different to Europe, Australian drivers tend to also prefer sharper steering and more controlled handling.

“It’s fine tuning, because our roads in Australia, generally speaking, align with where Europe is, of course, not including the autobahns, and the consumer driving preference in terms of steering and suspension, is more aligned with Europe,” Bhindi says.

“So we are comfortable that the car will deliver what Australian consumers expect, and I do have to say it is very different from what is available in the Chinese market, because my understanding of the preference for Chinese consumers, the driving, the steering and the suspension setup, their preference is a lot different to what the Europeans expect.”

Bhindi has also told CarsGuide to expect more cars from China imported by big brands like it and Toyota, so expect to see more local tuning for Chinese-built cars in the future.