Current generation Mazda MX-5 ND to end in 2025, you're not going to like its hybrid replacement

The current ND generation Mazda MX-5 made its global debut in 2014 but it didn’t go on sale until mid-2015. Soon, the world’s best-selling roadster will be a decade old. The MX-5 is due for a replacement and a new NE generation model is expected by 2025.

If you’ve been following the global automotive trend, you could already predict that the end is near for the MX-5, also known as the Miata in the US.

Environmental regulations are changing, and so are today’s car buyers.

The new generation of excessive screentime youths have little interest in cars, at least not in a traditional sense.

Unless the car in question can drive itself, has a big touch screen, comes with Internet connection, and can be plugged in to charge – basically a smartphone on wheels, and everything the Mazda MX-5 hates – it’s a lousy car.

Purist drivers who still know how to operate a manual transmission and understand what it means when a car is described as rotating around the driver’s waist are a diminishing (and increasingly ageing) group.

The ND generation MX-5 will be last roadster in the world to still offer a pure, unadulterated, organic, and analogue driving experience.

Its replacement will have to adopt some form of electrification – a peace offering to keep European Union bureaucrats eager to kill off combustion engine cars, to give them a bit more breathing space.

Just as Porsche has said that even if the all its cars become electric, the 911 will never be a battery EV, likewise Mazda with their MX-5.

If every Porsche pays homage to the 911, then the MX-5 is the one car that gives Mazda’s its reason to exist.

However, Mazda is expected to compromise by offering the next generation MX-5 as a mild-hybrid. Not even a full-hybrid, but a mild-hybrid.

Simplicity and keeping weight to its bare minimum are part of the MX-5’s DNA, so a heavy battery that dilutes the purity of an organic sports car’s driving experience is ruled out.

Japanese publication Best Car Web says the next NE generation 2025 Mazda MX-5 will retain the 1.5-litre and 2.0-litre engine options, and offer 100 PS per litre output, aided by mild-hybrid electric boost.

Closer to home, Bermaz Motor only sells the retractable hardtop 2.0-litre RF variant of the Mazda MX-5. The 6-speed manual sells for RM 276,200 while the 6-speed automatic transmission variant is priced from RM 278,200.