“If there’s a feasible way to do that, then I’m sure if somebody will do it, it’s Mazda, because here the enthusiasts still make things happen,” the brand’s product planning supervisor in Europe, Moritz Oswald, told Auto Express in an exclusive interview.
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“The amount of car enthusiasts in this company is insane,” he added. “Everybody loves cars, so of course there is a deep desire to keep on launching emotional products. So are we looking into that? Yes, of course.”
If the production car looks like the concept it will be a thing of beauty, while underneath the long and very low bonnet we hope to find a rotary-hybrid powertrain. The challenge Mazda faces is making a car like this affordable and attainable for its customers, not a £100,000 Porsche 911 rival.
Mazda 2
SUVs might make up the majority of Mazda’s sales these days, but the Japanese brand hasn’t given up on the humble supermini. At last year’s Japan Mobility Show, it even gave us a glimpse of what could be the next-generation Mazda 2 in the form of the fabulous Vision X-Compact.
This little show-stopper, finished in Mazda’s classic Soul Red paint, featured rounder and more friendly styling than the current 2. The clean surfacing was a key element of the brand’s Kodo design language, while the subtly flared wheelarches gave the car its purposeful stance.
The cabin was even more dramatic and suitably sporty, using the same bright red colour as the outside across the dashboard and doors, a simple three-spoke steering wheel, behind which was a big, enticing rev-counter with a red-line of 7,700rpm.
We’re not sure if the production version will rev that freely, but we are expecting it to feature either hybrid or pure-petrol engines, rather than being electric as with most of the new small cars on the horizon. Efficiency will be important, of course, but it’s sure to deliver an engaging driving experience as well, like a proper Mazda should.
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