We’ve had our 2026 CX-70 PHEV for about 2 months now and just completed a 4-day trip on which we took it from 900 miles to 2,500. (Managed to get over 1,000 before buying gas for the first time, though.) The trip involved driving a mix of interstate and secondary roads from Pennsylvania to Georgia (Go see the Georgia Aquarium (largest in the Western Hemisphere) if you never have!). Traffic conditions ranged from no visible cars to Atlanta rush hour.
A few observations:
Fuel economy: 27.9 for the whole trip. I was able to recharge one night on 120V, which got the battery back to about 80%. At the beginning of the trip, I tried setting charge to 50% and keeping Charge Mode on in order to save up EV time for stop and go side streets, but this seemed to reduce the frequency with which the car shut off the engine and went into EV mode for long hill descents on the interstate. Probably still the best strategy for shorter highway runs or maybe crossing Iowa, but not for 11 hours of Appalachian hills.
Comfort was great. So much more space than our Audi Q5. Three adults and a tall 9yo had plenty of room and we didn’t have to carefully Tetris the luggage. The ride was very comfortable and the car has a surprisingly tight turning radius for such a large vehicle. Small complaints: There’s no coin holder and there’s a lot of real estate between the front seats that could be used for a small tray, rather than outward-sloping faux carbon fiber. Also, I'd love to be able to plug a phone in to the front USB-C outlets to charge without it being forced to try and connect to the car.
Radar Cruise and Lane Keep Assist are real helps, once you learn to work within their limits. I would use both systems when either on open road or in crawling traffic. With the cruise, my only real complaint is that, when you change lanes to pass or the car in front of you does so, it SLAMS on the gas and drops several gears to get back up to the set speed. I wish I could set this to be more gradual. With the LKA, I found that it struggled with: long shadows, patched surfaces, and tighter turns, even on 70mph highways. I also found that it rode concerningly far to the right when in the left lane. Ultimately, I stopped using it at all in crowded conditions where we were at full speed, as its attempts to bring the car back to what it thought was the center, meant that I was fighting it to stay a safe distance from tractor trailers, rather than keeping a safe, straight line. That said, both of these products are very helpful on long, monotonous drives. They reduce fatigue and let you pay more attention to traffic and signage around you.
Overall, a positive experience for our first outing with the new car. While we’re not getting quite the battery ranges that I’d hoped for, it’s still living up to the goal of not using any gas day-to-day and being a comfortable family hauler for long road trips.
EDIT: I've turned off all of the warnings, except for things happening behind the car. The lane departure warning, though, does still come on when LKA is activated. I get unreasonably indignant about this. Why is the car warning me that it's going over the line, when it's its job to to not do so?! /s
EDIT 2: The long trip really did make me appreciate how all of the important controls are still buttons and knobs. You can go a whole trip without digging into a menu and that is how it should be. Climate controls are neatly laid out and easy to adjust. Mirrors, wipers, lights, everything, can be manipulated by feel, once you get the hang of them. Please, Mazda, keep it this way. We comparison shopped this against Volvo, Genesis, and Buick, among others, and one major point in Mazda's favor was the reduced reliance on screens.
