As an editor here at Entrepreneur.com and a writer of a bunch of car-centric books, I’ve had the chance to slip behind the wheel of some amazing vehicles — from a Lamborghini Urus to a Bentley to a truly beastly Raptor.
I wouldn’t say that I am jaded because being in the driver’s seat of anything besides the lame wheels sitting in my driveway is a true treat. But I’ve grown accustomed to being wowed. But having said that, test driving the Mazda CX-90 PHEV Premium Plus got my car-loving blood pumping.
I spent a week driving it between Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina, for a string of business meetings with my family in tow, and I have to say I was impressed — not by any single flashy feature, but how it all plays together.
Stress-Free Cruising
South Carolina is a mix of long, flat interstate stretches and dense, historic city grids — Columbia’s wide boulevards give way to Charleston‘s tight, cobblestoned downtown blocks packed with tourists, delivery trucks, and the occasional horse-drawn carriage. It’s a good stress test for any vehicle, and the CX-90 handled both extremes without missing a beat. On I-26 and I-77, it settled into a quiet, composed cruise. And once I hit Charleston’s narrower streets, it felt noticeably smaller and easier to place than a three-row SUV has any right to feel.
As a plug-in hybrid, the CX-90 constantly has to decide whether to run on its battery or its gas engine, and I appreciated that I never had to think about that decision myself. The car’s computer quietly made the call, leaning on electric power around town and blending in the gas engine on the highway, all in the name of squeezing out the best possible fuel economy: 56 MPGe combined (gasoline + electricity). I didn’t drive around babysitting a power meter or second-guessing which mode I was in. I just drove, and the car handled the optimization in the background. That let me focus on what really mattered — spotting the next roadside BBQ joint.
Room for the Fam — and All of Our Junk
I traveled with my wife and two kids, plus the usual pile of luggage, laptop bags, and the inevitable junk you bring that you never unpack. But storage was never a concern. The CX-90 swallowed everything we brought with room to spare, and folding down the third row for the return trip opened up even more space for the souvenirs and groceries we picked up along the way. Did I mention it is about 12 trillion degrees in South Carolina in the summer? We easily went through a case of water and Gatorade a day. A special shoutout to the cupholders that transform into flat surfaces, and the Nappa leather trim and ventilated seats that kept us cool even in the blistering-ist heat of high noon. It’s all at once very practical and very luxe.
Photo credit: Mazda
Cameras When You Need Them Most
The moment that sold me on the CX-90’s tech came in, of all places, a hotel parking garage in Charleston. I have never seen a structure with more concrete pillars packed into a smaller footprint — it felt like it was designed by someone who got paid by the door ding. The CX-90’s 360-degree camera system made what should have been a white-knuckle parking job feel almost boring. I could see exactly where every corner of the car sat relative to the pillars, and the sense of relief pulling into that spot without a single scrape was real. If I had one complaint, the steering felt a little stiff. I got a bit of a workout making those 400-point turns.
A Safe Bet
The CX-90 PHEV was named a 2026 IIHS Top Safety Pick+, part of a lineup that gave Mazda more Top Safety Pick+ awards than any other brand this year — the third year running. Consumer Reports named Mazda its first-ever Safest New-Car Brand based on crash testing and braking, and how intuitively a car’s safety tech actually works in the real world. (If you’ve ever been inside a car whose safety features bleep alerts because a leaf blew by, you know why that’s important.)
The Bottom Line
You don’t need to be a gearhead to appreciate the CX-90 PHEV, and that seems to be the point. This isn’t a car that asks you to learn its quirks or manage its systems. It manages itself — fuel economy, parking, comfort, safety — so you can focus on the work trip, the family, or whether or not that handwritten cardboard menu display with brisket misspelled on it is a bad sign or a great one.
As an editor here at Entrepreneur.com and a writer of a bunch of car-centric books, I’ve had the chance to slip behind the wheel of some amazing vehicles — from a Lamborghini Urus to a Bentley to a truly beastly Raptor.
I wouldn’t say that I am jaded because being in the driver’s seat of anything besides the lame wheels sitting in my driveway is a true treat. But I’ve grown accustomed to being wowed. But having said that, test driving the Mazda CX-90 PHEV Premium Plus got my car-loving blood pumping.
I spent a week driving it between Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina, for a string of business meetings with my family in tow, and I have to say I was impressed — not by any single flashy feature, but how it all plays together.
