Mazda has spent decades proving sports cars don’t need enormous muscle to be fun. They just need to be light, and that means EV power is out. Now one of those rules is about to change. CEO Masahiro Moro has confirmed the next MX-5, codenamed NE, is being prepared for electric power, and somehow Mazda thinks it can keep the little roadster seriously light.

 

Speaking with Auto Motor und Sport only weeks after an Aussie Mazda exec said the next MX-5 could be the last to run a combustion motor, Moro said the MX-5’s replacement must be prepared for a future where combustion power is no longer viable at all due to regulatory roadblocks.