The automaker hasn’t said it’s going to build an EV that will be called Miata, however.

An interesting feature of the patent filing is the unconventional battery setup.

Mazda is not replacing the Miata with an electric vehicle just yet. The company’s CTO, Ryuichi Umeshita, said earlier this month that the brand is currently planning on building an even lighter roadster that remains naturally aspirated and retains the all-important manual transmission. That does not mean Mazda isn’t thinking about the future, though.

A patent filed by the brand in October 2024 and published earlier this month, recently brought to wider attention by Motor1, demonstrates what such an electric roadster could be like. The document is simply titled “electric automobile,” but the illustration (pictured above) leaves little room for confusion about what kind of car the patent is addressing.

Diagrams within the document indicate that this theoretical EV would package its batteries in a unique way to ensure not only perfect forward and rear weight distribution, but balanced distribution across the car. Most cells are distributed in one big column where a transmission tunnel would be in an internal-combustion car. More cells are kept in two smaller sections behind the seats, and a third section is placed in front of the passenger seat. This ensures weight is low, central, and balanced, with the additional battery behind the passenger even operating as a counterweight when only a driver is in the car.

A single motor would then be placed in the same transmission tunnel area, directing power toward a rear differential. This means that the theoretical electric roadster would still be a rear-wheel drive, single-motor car, rather than the multi-motor performance models seen by other brands.

This powertrain could also be adapted for use in other types of car, but the focus on weight distribution suggests that this concept is meant for a performance model. Whether or not that EV bears the Miata name is a question for another day. First, Mazda has to decide whether or not to actually build something based around this premise