At Silo’s Brussels, the former brewery complex beside the Willebroek Canal, Mazda Motor Belux last week gathered journalists, dealers, fleet managers, and other stakeholders for its Mazda Experience Days, putting the spotlight on the CX-6e that made its world debut at the Brussels Motor Show in January.
The occasion was as much about strategy as it was about sheet metal. The CX-6e will reach Belgian showrooms this summer as Mazda’s second modern battery-electric model after the Mazda 6e.
It is a 4.85-meter electric crossover with a 78 kWh lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery, a 190 kW (258 hp) rear motor, and 290 Nm of torque. Mazda quotes up to 484 kilometers of WLTP range, with DC charging at up to 195 kW, allowing a 10-80% top-up in 24 minutes.
Starting at €46,290
Belgian pricing starts at €46,290 including VAT for the Takumi trim. The €49,290 Takumi Plus adds 21-inch wheels, digital exterior mirrors, and heated and ventilated rear seats, while the Takumi gets 19-inch wheels, a panoramic roof, a head-up display, and heated and ventilated front seats. Both versions use the same rear-wheel-drive powertrain.
The CX-6e is not simply a taller Mazda 6e. It has a 2,902 mm wheelbase, more rear-seat room, 468 liters of luggage space that grows to 1,434 liters with the seats folded, and an 80-liter front boot.
But its real importance lies underneath. Like the Mazda 6e, it was developed with a Chinese partner, Changan, and is made in China by the long-standing Changan Mazda joint venture.
Japanese or Chinese?
That is a sensitive point for a Japanese engineering-led brand that has postponed the launch of its first proprietary dedicated EV architecture to 2029, while relying on its Chinese partner, Changan, to bring battery-electric models to market quickly.
Tim Bosmans (picture), managing director of Mazda Motor Belux, had just returned from visiting the Chinese factory. He joined Mazda in 2013 after finance roles at cookware maker Demeyere, Schering-Plough and Masterfoods.
He built his career at Mazda through financial and sales-planning positions before succeeding Matthias Sileghem as Managing Director of Mazda Motor Belux in 2021. Sileghem moved to Mazda Motor Europe at the same time and is now Vice President Communications & Product Strategy.
Co-developed for Europe
When asked how Japanese this electric SUV is, Tim Bosmans said the question was unavoidable. He said the car should be seen as co-developed for Europe, rather than as a simple import with a Mazda badge.
He was surprised to find out how much ‘Mazda’ and Japanese the Chinese factory in Nanjing really is. The CX-6e is built at Changan Mazda’s Nanjing plant, a 50:50 Mazda-Changan joint-venture site with Mazda production heritage dating back to 2007.
The plant had previously built Mazda3, CX-30, CX-5, and CX-50 models largely for China. The Mazda 6e, whose export production began there in 2025, marked its first documented role as a supplier to Europe.
The CX-6e is the second model in that new export program. and a newly upgraded line for the EZ-60, the Chinese-market version of the electric SUV.
Changan brings the electric architecture and intelligent-vehicle technology. Mazda says it led much of the design work and that its European engineering teams worked on chassis, steering, braking, tires, accelerator response, driver-assistance calibration, and the wider European software set-up.
Question of survival
The distinction matters in a market where Mazda has been conspicuously cautious about BEVs. In a previous interview with newmobility.news, Mazda Motor Europe CEO Martijn ten Brink called the Mazda 6e and CX-6e “big investments”, adding that a move into the EV market has become unavoidable because “otherwise, we could not survive”.
Europe is therefore strategically more important to Mazda than its sales volume alone suggests. Mazda’s own presentation puts European sales at 164,000 vehicles in the fiscal year ending March 2026 and targets 197,000 in the following year.
The CX-6e and Mazda 6e are central to that recovery plan, with Mazda saying the 6e had already passed 7,000 European sales since its launch last September.
For Belux, meaning Belgium and Luxembourg, the stakes are more immediate. Mazda’s local presentation showed 4,012 sales in the fiscal year ending March 2026 and a target of 6,500 for the fiscal year ending March 2027, a 62% increase.
Fleet share is expected to rise from 17% to 23%, explaining why the Brussels audience included fleet managers alongside the dealer network.
Falling sales due to the outgoing CX-5
The timing is critical. Mazda’s Belgian sales fell sharply in 2025 as the outgoing CX-5 neared the end of its cycle. Ten Brink previously noted that the model alone accounted for about 40% of Mazda’s local volume.
The new CX-5, Mazda 6e, and CX-6e are intended to reverse that decline, but the electric SUV is the clearest expression of the new formula: Chinese EV hardware, Mazda design, and European driving calibration.
Brussels has become the stage on which Mazda wants to prove that formula. Ten Brink has described the city as the “Switzerland of the automotive industry”, a neutral setting for European premieres.
The Experience Days at Silo Brussels made that symbolism more concrete. For Mazda Belux, the CX-6e is more than a new SUV. It is a test of whether a Japanese brand can use a Chinese partnership to regain traction in Europe’s rapidly electrifying market.
