Mazda’s 2025 CX-50 Hybrid Has an Important Safety Feature Not Found In the Honda CR-V Hybrid, Toyota Crown Signia Hybrid, or Subaru Forester Hybrid, and You Should Seriously Consider This When Shopping

It’s late winter, and the roads in New England are badly torn up by plows and frost heaves. Monster potholes are everywhere, and at night after a rain, one cannot tell a puddle from a deep and dangerous hole in the road. One mistake could damage a sidewall and leave you with a flat tire that cannot be remedied with a “tire mobility kit.” That’s why we suggest only buying a crossover SUV if it comes with a spare tire. Like the one Mazda puts in its new 2025 CX-50 Hybrid. 

Torque News Communicated with Mazda’s Jon Leverett, Launch Manager, Strategic Planning & Integration, about the new 2025 CX-50 Hybrid, and the first thing we asked was whether Mazda retained the spare, like the one it puts in all of its crossovers and SUVs. Here’s what Mr. Leverett told us:

Safety is a big part of the reason we offer a spare tire in the CX-50. If a driver finds themselves with a blown-out tire, they cannot rely on a patch kit, so we want to provide customers with the peace of mind that a physical spare provides. CX-50 is also a more adventurous & outdoor-focused vehicle for Mazda, so we expect drivers to drive on more varied road surfaces and drive to areas with limited cell service where a spare tire would be even more useful if a customer gets a flat tire.

Like the RAV4 Hybrid from Toyota, Mazda engineered the CX-50 to accommodate both a hybrid battery and also space for a compact spare tire. Unfortunately, Honda, Subaru, and Hyundai were unable to find a solution that included both the spare and the hybrid battery in the CR-V Hybrid, Forester Hybrid, and Tucson Hybrid. We are being kind here. Another possibility is that Honda, Subaru, and Hyundai simply opted to delete the spare to save a few dollars. Either way, the folks at Mazda and Toyota found a way to keep the spare. Although we are giving Toyota credit where it is due in this story, we do need to point out that the new Toyota Crown Signia, which looks to our eye a lot like a CX-50 competitor, has no spare tire, despite its sedan version having one. Weird. We were sure to point out the lack of a spare tire in our coverage of the Crown Signia. 

The spare tire in Mazda's CX-50 Hybrid does not subtract any space from its generously sized cargo area. The spare is under the cargo floor, and Mazda places a round audio component inside the middle of the spare to take advantage of that available space. Emergency items such as flashlights and tools also have their own space under the cargo floor in cut-outs Mazda provides. 

Related Story For EV Fans - Here Are All the EVs You Can Buy in 2025 With a Spare Tire

The new CX-50 Hybrid boasts an incredible 38 MPG combined EPA Estimated fuel economy rating (projected) and does so with the spare retained. With 219 peak system hp, we expect the CX-50 Hybrid to be sportier and more satisfying to drive than the base 2.5-liter-engine-equipped CX-50 trims. Watch Torque News for a full review in the near future. 

Is a spare tire a feature that you would prefer to have, or would you be satisfied if your vehicle manufacturer left it out? Please tell us your thoughts in the comments section below. 

John Goreham is a credentialed New England Motor Press Association member and expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE int). In addition to his eleven years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can connect with John on Linkedin and follow his work on his personal X channel or on our X channel. Please note that stories carrying John's by-line are never AI-generated, but he does employ grammar and punctuation software when proofreading and he also uses image generation tools. 

Image of Mazda CX-50 Spare tire and off-pavement scene courtesy of Mazda. Chart by John Goreham based on manufacturer specifications.