Everything Mazda Has Said So Far About The 5th-Gen Miata

Mazda's recent comments about a new fifth-generation Miata point to a future that most Mazda Miata fans should be very pleased with. The next generation, which will most likely be called the NE, will have an internal combustion engine (ICE) that will continue to be normally aspirated, just as most generations of the Mazda Miata do. It will also remain a relatively lightweight vehicle and will continue to be compact in overall size, just as the Miata is now. A manual transmission is also part of the plan for the next Miata, so the next version of Mazda's sports car will continue to offer you the ability to shift your own gears. 

The Miata is the vehicle that represents the distilled essence of the Mazda brand, a statement that reverberates through the rest of its SUV-heavy lineup to whatever extent is possible. The Mazda Miata is small, light, and manually shifted because the company that makes it values these qualities, even if they do not directly translate to the big, heavy, automatic-transmission-equipped SUVs generating most of the profits that keep the low-volume Miata in production. The next-generation Miata may end up even lighter than the current model, with designers targeting a weight of one metric ton (2,200 pounds), a reduction of 166 pounds when compared to the 2025 Mazda Miata. Keeping the Miata light means that more power will not be needed to maintain the car's performance, negating the need for either a larger engine or a turbocharger.

As to whether or not an electrically-powered Miata will ever be developed, the team behind the Miata believe that as long as the current formula of internal combustion, light weight, small size, and manual transmission continue to be feasible, the Mazda Miata will follow that path, even though Mazda has previously talked about the Miata going electric. But if regulations were to change and ICE was no longer an option, the Miata team would adapt to the prevailing reality. So if there is no other alternative, we could potentially see an electric Miata.

In fact, there is currently a UK company, Electrogenic, that has produced an EV conversion for the 1990-97 NA-generation Miata. It is a very well-engineered conversion that is completely reversible, with the engine bay (shown above) and the space used by the fuel tank housing the batteries. Power from the electric motor is a great engine to swap out for the original Miata's, with 161 horsepower providing a 0-60 mph time of about six seconds, overcoming the 220-pound weight penalty of the conversion. The bad news comes in two parts — you can no longer shift gears with the Miata's lovely manual transmission once it's converted (except to shift it into Drive) and the cost of the conversion has been estimated by Electrogenic's owner to be around £30,000 ($40,701), plus the donor car.